BAGHDAD — Al Qaida has deployed bombs laced with toxins in an
attempt to increase the lethality of attacks in Iraq, coalition military sources said.
On Aug. 9, the U.S.-led
coalition found a suspected chemicals factory in Mosul with 1,500 gallons of
chemicals.
A statement by the Multi-National Force said the facility was used to
develop the bombs mixed with toxins. The statement said Sunni insurgents
succeeded in employing roadside bombs that contained toxic chemicals.
The MNF said coalition forces learned of the facility from suspected
insurgents, Middle East Newsline reported. The statement said the investigation would continue.
Meanwhile, U.S. military sources said Iraq has killed a senior aide of Al Qaida network leader
Abu Mussib Al Zarqawi.
The sources said Mohammed Saleh Sultan was killed in an ambush in
Mosul on Aug. 12. The military said on Monday that Sultan, known as Abu
Zubeir, was a leading operative in Al Qaida in Iraq.
Sultan was said to have held several senior positions in Al Qaida and
was accused of directing the bombing attack of an Iraqi police station in
Mosul in July in which five policemen were killed. Officials said he was
wearing a suicide belt filled with metal pellets when he was killed.
Officials said Iraqi and U.S. forces have been particularly effective
against Al Zarqawi cells in northern Iraq. They said that since June 2005 at
least two Mosul cell commanders were killed.
"Abu Zubeir's death, as well as recent captures of terrorists in
northern Iraq, is making a difference in coalition and Iraqi security forces
efforts to disrupt terrorists operating in this part of the country," Col.
Bill Buckner, a coalition spokesman, said.
In a letter written to Al Zarqawi and discovered in a raid on an Al
Qaida safe house on July 27, an operative complained of the declining
quality of the leadership. The letter, by somebody named Abu Zayd, also
reported the mistreatment of foreign fighters.
