U.S. Forces Kill Qaeda Leader Wanted For Attacks

Haji Hammadi was a senior leader of the Sunni Islamist militant group in Garma and Abu Ghraib, west of Baghdad.

U.S. forces killed a senior al Qaeda leader wanted for planning suicide bombings, kidnappings and assassinations, including the abduction and killing of a U.S. army sergeant in 2004, the U.S. military said on Thursday.

Haji Hammadi was a senior leader of the Sunni Islamist militant group in Garma and Abu Ghraib, west of Baghdad, Brigadier-General David Perkins, the spokesman for U.S. forces in Iraq, told a news conference.

U.S. forces killed Hammadi during a raid in Baghdad's upmarket western Mansour district on Nov 11.

"The removal of a cold blooded killer of innocent Iraqis and U.S. service personnel will further degrade the ability of al Qaeda to carry out ... ruthless attacks in Iraq," Perkins said.

Hammadi has been affiliated to al Qaeda in Iraq since its inception, Perkins said. He was wanted for organising and carrying out attacks and assassinations against U.S. and Iraqi forces, government officials, U.S.-backed neighbourhood patrols and Iraqi civilians.

These included the abduction and killing of U.S. army Staff Sergeant Matt Maupin in 2004.

He was also responsible for a suicide bomb attack on a tribal council meeting in Garma on June 26 that killed 20 Iraqis, including Garma's mayor, three U.S. Marines, one of them a battalion commander, and two translators, he said.

Earlier this month, Iraqi security forces supported by U.S. firepower killed Abu Ghazwan, a senior al Qaeda leader who made car bombs and ran Islamist militant cells in northern Iraq.

Al Qaeda militants have been in retreat since Sunni Arab tribal leaders turned against them and formed U.S.-backed neighbourhood patrols that drove them out of strongholds in western Iraq and Baghdad.

But they have kept a presence in northern Iraq and have shown themselves still capable of staging large-scale attacks.