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Monday, July 23, 2007

Help wanted: Al Qaida cells in Iraq struggling to replace fallen leaders

BAGHDAD — The U.S. military said Al Qaida is struggling to rebuild cells dismantled in coalition operations in Iraq.

U.S. commanders said Al Qaida was encountering difficulty in regenerating cells destroyed in U.S.-led coalition operations in such provinces as Anbar, Baghdad and Diyala. The commanders said the greatest challenge was appointing replacements for captured or killed Al Qaida cell leaders.

"In some cases we've stripped through the leaderships of that, whereas before a cell would have a leader taken out and another person was ready to step up and fill the gap," Brig. Gen. Robert Holmes, deputy director of operations for U.S. Central Command, said. "What we see in some cases, I think, is that it's becoming more difficult for certain cells to repair."

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Holmes told a July 19 briefing that Al Qaida continued to recruit operatives, Middle East Newsline reported. But the general said the Islamic insurgency network was struggling to find cell commanders to maintain attacks against Iraqi and U.S. forces.

On July 19, the U.S. military identified a senior Al Qaida operative killed in June in western Iraq as a Turkish national. The military said Khattab Al Turki was a close associate of then-Al Qaida operations chief Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, planner of the Al Qaida suicide air strikes on New York and Washington in September 2001.

Al Turki, killed along with two comrades in Hawija on June 23, was said to have commanded Turkish nationals in Afghanistan in the war against the United States. The military said the other two operatives performed key communications and logistic tasks for Al Qaida in Iraq.

In his briefing, Holmes said Al Qaida in Anbar has come under pressure from Sunni tribes. He said the tribes were recruiting fighters to track and destroy Al Qaida cells in the largest province in Iraq.

"The tribal leaders are taking up arms, working with the coalition forces, because they hate Al Qaida more than they hate the U.S. and the coalition forces," Holmes said. "That may be, but you know what? If Iraqis are fighting for Iraq, that's OK."

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