castledoom.com

[JuntaJoe]

Can you believe we don't have a proper thread for this topic already? :shock:

Ok, let's remember the name of this thread. Discussing factional violence in Iraq is debatable as to it's place in a War on Terror discussion. But discussing what al-Zarqawi does there certainly qualifies. And so do most of the other US military actions around the globe qualify. Just try to keep the topic on the terror aspects. You can discuss the standard Iraq war in another thread.

[JuntaJoe]

Senior al-Qaida suspect arrested in Pakistan; authorities 'on right track' to catch bin Laden

May 04, 2005 11:05 AM EDT
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - A senior al-Qaida leader, described by U.S. counterterrorism officials as the group's No. 3 man and a close confidant of Osama bin Laden, has been arrested after a firefight in northwestern Pakistan, officials said Wednesday. Pakistan said it was "on the right track" to catch the fugitive terrorist leader.

Abu Farraj al-Libbi, who allegedly orchestrated two assassination attempts against President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, was arrested after a firefight Monday on the outskirts of Mardan, 50 kilometers (30 miles) north of Peshawar, capital of the deeply conservative North West Frontier Province, government and security officials said.

"This is a very important day for us," Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed told The Associated Press. "This arrest gives us a lot of tips, and I can only say that our security agencies are on the right track" in the hunt for bin Laden, Ahmed said.

"This man knew many people and many hideouts," he added.

In Washington, U.S. President George W. Bush said the arrest "represents a critical victory in the war on terror."

"Al-Libbi was a top general for bin Laden," Bush said. "He was a major facilitator and a chief planner for the al-Qaida network. His arrest removes a dangerous enemy who was a direct threat to America and for those who love freedom."

A U.S. counterterrorism official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said al-Libbi was the No. 3 al-Qaida figure behind bin Laden and Egyptian Ayman al-Zawahri.

The official called his arrest the most significant blow to al-Qaida since the March 1, 2003, capture in Pakistan of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, adding that al-Libbi is believed responsible for planning attacks around the world, including within the United States.

"Their leadership and support network is fraying," said the official, referring to al-Qaida. He termed the arrest "another chapter in the degradation of their network" - though he does not appear on the FBI's list of the globe's most-wanted terrorists.

Another Libyan, Anas al-Liby, who is wanted in connection with the 1998 bombings of U.S. Embassies in Africa, is on that list. Pakistani officials and a U.S. embassy spokesman in Islamabad said the men are not the same. Al-Libbi or al-Liby simply mean "The Libyan" in Arabic.

Pakistani Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao said the U.S. government had offered a US$10 million (?7.7 million) bounty for information leading to al-Libbi's arrest.

Three Pakistani intelligence officials told AP on condition of anonymity that al-Libbi - also known as Dr. Taufeeq - was one of two foreigners arrested Monday after a firefight on the outskirts of Mardan.

One of the officials said 11 more terror suspects - including three Uzbeks, an Afghan and seven Pakistanis - were arrests before dawn Wednesday in the Bajor tribal region.

The intelligence officials said authorities were led to al-Libbi's hideout by a tip that foreigners had been spotted in the area. The suspect was held overnight at a military facility in Mardan, then transferred by helicopter to the capital, Islamabad, the officials said.

A security official, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said that information from U.S. officials helped Pakistan plan a well-coordinated operation to capture al-Libbi, but that Pakistan had also got intelligence on al-Libbi from militant suspects it arrested months ago.

Al-Libbi reportedly spent time in South Waziristan, a tribal region along the border with Afghanistan that is considered a likely hideout for bin Laden. But he fled following a series of military operations in the area last year. Authorities had said privately in recent weeks that they believed they were zeroing in on his location.

The security official said on condition of anonymity that al-Libbi had differences with Uzbeks and Arabs among the militants who had been reluctant to accept him as a leader.

Al-Libbi is accused of masterminding two bombings against Musharraf in December 2003. The military leader escaped injury but 17 others were killed in one of the attacks.

He allegedly took over as al-Qaida's operational chief in Pakistan after the March 1, 2003, arrest of Mohammed, the terror network's purported No. 3. Mohammed was later handed over to U.S. custody, and his whereabouts are unknown.

Sherpao said it was too early to comment on whether al-Libbi might be turned over to the United States, but he stressed there were important cases pending against him in Pakistan.

Musharraf, a key ally in the U.S.-led war on terrorism, named the Libyan as the chief suspect in the bombings against him. He was among six suspects identified as Pakistan's most-wanted terrorists in a poster campaign last year.

In the poster, al-Libbi appeared in a photograph as a dapper man with a short beard, wearing a Western suit and tie - much different to his disheveled appearance in a photograph taken after his arrest in which he appears to suffer a skin condition.

The other most-wanted suspects were all Pakistanis linked to Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, a Sunni Muslim militant group believed tied to al-Qaida. One of them, Amjad Hussain Farooqi, was killed in a shootout with security forces in southern Pakistan in September.

Farooqi was accused of plotting the bombings against Musharraf with al-Libbi and of involvement in the kidnapping and beheading of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in Karachi in 2002.

Pakistan has arrested hundreds of terror suspects since Musharraf ended the country's support of the Taliban regime in neighboring Afghanistan after the Sept. 11 attacks on America and waged bloody operations against al-Qaida-linked militants in Waziristan along the Afghan border.

It has handed over about 700 al-Qaida suspects to the United States, including Mohammed, Sept. 11 planner Ramzi Binalshibh and al-Qaida senior operative Abu Zubaydah.

---

2005 Associated Press

[s_stabeler]

interesting news in the paper yesterday, al-zarqawi turned up at an iraqi hospital, badly injured. he was trwated, the doctor asked him to stay for further investigations( he was probably going to cvall the US army, given al-zarqwi has a large bounty on his head) but zarqwi refused when asked for his name and a few other details. then he was driven off. zarqwi that is. imagine if he had stayed, they might have caught someone who could have lead them to bin laden.

[JuntaJoe]

The doctor should have given him a sedative and called the local Iraqi militia.

[JuntaJoe]

Now they can't be sure of what happened, but it's clear that he is no longer the power he once was. Let's just hope his replacement is stupid.



Ok, since Middle East politics is at the root of this terrorist mess, I thought I'd call attention to the war I fought in before the world recognized the gravity of the Middle East issue. But let me tell you that Beruit was a friggin quagmire that needed a score of analysts just to figure who was on your side day-to-day. We saw the mess the Middle East would become back in the early 80's and tried to warn everyone that we should have filled the Middle East with troops back then.

Just to give you a clue about how complicated this is, I present this next article. See if you can figure out exactly who is with who in this next election. If you can't then you know what I woke up to every day there.


Lebanon Ready for Vote After Syria Pullout

May 28, 2005 5:49 PM EDT
BEIRUT, Lebanon - Candidates loyal to Lebanon's assassinated former premier have posted giant campaign billboards bearing his picture, hoping a wave of sympathy will bring them to power in Lebanon's first elections in decades that are free from Syrian domination.

Former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri's son and political successor will likely be the main benefactor of the vote in four-stage elections beginning Sunday. Hariri's killing, which sparked mass protests that ultimately forced Syria to withdraw from Lebanon, appears to be the driving force in the vote.

But surprisingly, the legacy of Syria's 29-year military and political control of its smaller neighbor has not shaped up to be a major campaign issue. Syrian troops are gone, and it seems they were quickly forgotten.

Groups united in the vocal opposition to Syrian control after Hariri's killing in February are widely expected to win a majority in the next Parliament. Syria was accused by the opposition of having a hand in the assassination, a charge Damascus has denied.

Lebanon's long-awaited legislative elections - which begin Sunday in Beirut and in other regions over the following three Sundays - are seen as a chance to seal the end of Syria's political dominance after the last of its forces left in April.

Interior Minister Hassan Sabei promised "free and fair elections with complete neutrality by the state."

Hariri loyalists are determined to carry out his agenda of opposing extremism and rebuilding the country. They also want to ensure a thorough investigation of his killing.

The former prime minister's son, 35-year-old Saad Hariri, is leading a 19-member list of candidates named after his father in Beirut's three districts.

In urging Beirut's more than 400,000 eligible voters to turn out to show loyalty to his father, Saad Hariri billed the Beirut election as "the day of safeguarding Rafik Hariri's course (and) Rafik Hariri's blood."

Nine of his candidates have won uncontested seats and 10 others, including Saad Hariri, are competing for the remaining 10 seats in the capital. The competition is so lopsided that people are being urged to vote anyway if only to show Hariri's numerical dominance.

The election will be the first without foreign forces since the pre-civil war Parliament was elected in 1972, three years before the 15-year conflict erupted.

Lebanon's democratic tradition, although manipulated during civil war and 29 years of Syrian control, dates back to the Arab country's independence from France in 1943 and sets the country apart from the rest of the mostly autocratic Arab world.

But unlike Western democracies, the issues in Lebanon have focused on the interests of the 18 diverse Muslim and Christian sects and how much each can carve for its own in attempts to protect its identity. Loyalties are to families, clans, the sect and - less often - to a political party.

Although the country is shackled by high debt, the economy barely swings the vote.

Outside Beirut, there is a wider array of candidates and alliances competing for the 128 legislative seats that are split equally between Muslims and Christians.

Even within the opposition, there are sharp differences as the factions forge electoral alliances.

Christian leader Michel Aoun split with Hariri and Druse leader Walid Jumblatt. Aoun, a staunch anti-Syrian who returned from 14 years' exile May 7, is joining pro-Syrians in some districts. The Hariri-Jumblatt ticket is also allied in Beirut with Hezbollah, the pro-Syrian Shiite Muslim militant guerrilla group.

Hariri, a Sunni Muslim, is expected to be the leading politician in the Sunni community nationwide. Jumblatt is expected to dominate his small Druse sect. Christians are splintered into several factions.

Hezbollah and the pro-Syrian Amal, Shiite rivals who have joined hands, expect to scoop the seats in their strongholds in southern and eastern Lebanon.

More than 100 foreign observers from the European Union and the United Nations will be watching the vote for irregularities, the first time Lebanon has permitted foreign scrutiny.

Sen. Joseph Biden, a Delaware Democrat, arrived Saturday to watch the balloting. A delegation of four U.S. officials, including Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona, visited Beirut on Saturday and met with Prime Minister Najib Mikati before leaving the country. McCain reiterated U.S. support for free elections "without foreign interference."

Copyright 2005 Associated Press.

[JuntaJoe]

Most-wanted Iraq terrorist al-Zarqawi dead


Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, whose bloody campaign of beheadings and suicide bombings made him the most-wanted terrorist in Iraq, was killed when U.S. warplanes dropped 500-pound bombs on his isolated safe house, officials said Thursday. His death was a long-sought victory in the war in Iraq.

The targeted airstrike Wednesday evening was the culmination of a two-week-long hunt for al-Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq. Tips from senior militants led U.S. forces to follow al-Zarqawi's spiritual adviser to the safe house, 30 miles outside Baghdad, for a meeting with the terror leader. The adviser, Sheik Abdul Rahman, was among those killed.

Fingerprints, tattoos and scars helped U.S. troops identify al-Zarqawi's body, White House spokesman Tony Snow said. The U.S. military released a picture of al-Zarqawi's face after the airstrike, with his eyes closed and spots of blood behind him, an image reminiscent of photos of Saddam Hussein's slain sons from the early days of the war.

"Al-Zarqawi was eliminated," Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said.

President Bush, who learned of the deadly airstrike Wednesday afternoon, hailed the killing as "a severe blow to al-Qaida and it is a significant victory in the war on terror."

But he cautioned: "We have tough days ahead of us in Iraq that will require the continuing patience of the American people."

Around the time news reports announced al-Zarqawi's death, two bombs hit a market and a police patrol in Baghdad, killing at least 19 people and wounding more than 40. Police differed on whether the bombs struck shortly before or after the 10:30 a.m. news. Later, a parked car bomb exploded in north Baghdad, killing six people and wounding 15.

Al-Qaida in Iraq vowed to continue its "holy war," according to a statement posted on a Web site.

"We want to give you the joyous news of the martyrdom of the mujahed sheik Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

"The death of our leaders is life for us. It will only increase our persistence in continuing holy war so that the word of God will be supreme."

Thursday brought two major events for Iraq's new leadership: Shortly after news of al-Zarqawi's death, Parliament approved candidates for ministers in charge of Iraq's army and police, ending a political stalemate between Shiite and Sunni Arab factions.

The new ministers are seen as key to Iraq's taking control of its deteriorating security, and — with al-Zarqawi's death — some Iraqi citizens expressed hope for an end to sectarian bloodshed.

"If it's true al-Zarqawi was killed, that will be a big happiness for all the Iraqis," said Thamir Abdulhussein, a college student in Baghdad. "He was behind all the killings of Sunni and Shiites. Iraqis should now move toward reconciliation. They should stop the violence."

Not since the 2003 capture of Saddam in an underground bunker has the war seen the downfall of such an iconic figure.

The Jordanian-born terrorist, 39, was Iraq's most-wanted militant and nearly as notorious as Osama bin Laden, to whom he swore allegiance in 2004. The United States put a $25 million bounty on his head, the same as bin Laden. Al-Maliki told al-Arabiya television the bounty would be honored, saying "we will meet our promise," without elaborating.

As the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, Al-Zarqawi oversaw a wave of kidnappings of foreigners and the killings of at least a dozen, including Arab diplomats and three Americans. He personally is believed to have beheaded two Americans — Nicholas Berg of West Chester, Pa., and Eugene Armstrong, formerly of Hillsdale, Mich. — prompting supporters to dub him "the slaughtering sheik."

Al-Zarqawi also was a master Internet propagandist, spreading the call for Islamic extremists to join the "jihad," or holy war, in Iraq. His group posted gruesome images of beheadings, speeches by al-Zarqawi and recruitment videos depicting the planning and execution of its most daring attacks.

His followers also frequently targeted Shiite civilians and mosques in an attempt to spark sectarian civil war, and in his statements, al-Zarqawi — a Sunni Arab — often vilified Shiites as infidels.

Just days before his death, Al-Zarqawi issued an audiotape on the Internet, railing against Shiites in Iraq and saying militias were raping women and killing Sunnis. He urged the community to fight back.

Elated at news of his killing, Iraqi police in Baghdad's Shiite slum of Sadr City fired their guns in the air and chanted.

U.S.-led forces came close to capturing al-Zarqawi several times since his campaign began in mid-2003. Gen. George Casey, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, said the latest hunt began two weeks ago with intelligence from senior leaders of al-Zarqawi's network.

U.S. military spokesman Maj. Gen. William Caldwell said U.S. and Iraqi intelligence found al-Zarqawi by following his spiritual adviser, who visited al-Zarqawi at the safe house, prompting the airstrike. He showed a videotape of an attack in which he said F-16 fighter jets dropped two 500-pound bombs on the site.

"We had absolutely no doubt whatsoever that Zarqawi was in the house," Caldwell said, adding that Iraqi and U.S. troops carried out 17 raids around Baghdad after al-Zarqawi's killing.

Initially, al-Maliki said eight people were killed, including al-Zarqawi, but later agreed with the U.S. military that a total of six people died.

The safe house was located in a remote area 30 miles from Baghdad in the volatile province of Diyala, just east of the provincial capital of Baqouba, officials said.

Baqouba has in recent weeks seen a spike in sectarian violence, including the discovery of 17 severed heads in fruit boxes. It also was near the site of a sectarian atrocity last week in which masked gunmen killed 21 Shiites, including a dozen students pulled from minibuses, after separating out four Sunni Arabs.

"Those who disrupt the course of life, like al-Zarqawi, will have a tragic end," the Iraqi prime minister said. He warned those who would follow the militant's lead that "whenever there is a new al-Zarqawi, we will kill him."

"This is a message for all those who embrace violence, killing and destruction to stop and to (retreat) before it's too late," he said. "It is an open battle with all those who incite sectarianism."

Al-Maliki said tips from area residents helped lead to the airstrike. A Jordanian official said the kingdom also gave the U.S. military information on tracking down al-Zarqawi, who claimed responsibility for the triple suicide bombing of hotels in Jordan's capital, which killed 60 people — mostly Sunni Muslims. The attack drew condemnation from the Arab world, including Islamic militants.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was addressing intelligence issues, said some of the information came from Jordan's sources inside Iraq and led the U.S. military to the Baqouba area.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari told The Associated Press that a serious effort to find al-Zarqawi had been under way since he appeared in a videotape in late April — the same week messages were broadcast by bin Laden and his top deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri. He said the location where al-Zarqawi appeared in the videotape had been "pinpointed," without elaborating.

A U.S. defense intelligence official, who requested anonymity while events were unfolding, said there is no intelligence indicating that extremists planned attacks that would be triggered by al-Zarqawi's death.

However, his death might bring retaliation, he said.

It was not clear to American authorities who would succeed al-Zarqawi. The official noted that a number of al-Zarqawi deputies have been killed in recent months, which could cause chaos among the group's top tier.

Caldwell, the U.S military spokesman, said an Egyptian-born man he identified as Abu al-Masri will probably take over al-Qaida in Iraq.

In London, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said al-Zarqawi's death "was very good news, because a blow against al-Qaida in Iraq was a blow against al-Qaida everywhere." Afghan President Hamid Karzai called the killing "a significant step in ridding the world of the menace of terrorism."

In Jordan, al-Zarqawi's older brother said the insurgent leader was a martyr.

"We anticipated that he would be killed for a very long time," Sayel al-Khalayleh told The Associated Press by phone from Zarqa, the town from which al-Zarqawi derived his name. The family renounced him in the wake of the Amman bombing.

___

Associated Press reporter Katherine Shrader in Washington contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2006 The Associated Press.

[Elvish Magi]

How can you have a "War on terror"?

What's next in Bush's plans? The battle against the slightly sick feeling you get in your stomach before a job interview? :lol:

JuntaJoe wrote: Discussing factional violence in Iraq is debatable as to it's place in a War on Terror discussion. But discussing what al-Zarqawi does there certainly qualifies. And so do most of the other US military actions around the globe qualify. Just try to keep the topic on the terror aspects. You can discuss the standard Iraq war in another thread.

I am not sure you can so easily distinguish between the two here - if the Allies weren't in Iraq there would be no "war on terror" occuring there, nor would there be the factional violence.

[Eddy]

Call my cynical, but haven't we gotten a couple of "number 2" people? Yet for some reason no number 1 and no end in sight to this endless waste of resources.

[JuntaJoe]

He's dead, Eddy.

That's good enough for me.


Pile'em up like cord wood and let Allah sort'em out.



EM, the War on Terror is separate from the Iraq War.

We fight the War on Terror on many fronts. Afghanistan, Phillipines, Indonesia, the Horn of Africa, North Africa, Israel, Peru, Ecuador, and Colombia just to name a few places.

We fight this phase of the war to pre-empt the formation of the Caliphate.

You can find that thread in this board.

Bush's battle plan? Same one every US president has had since Washington. Keep firing the guns until they all vote free. Every US president that lasted more than a year has sent troops off to fight against those who would sponsor one form of tyranny or another.

This war isn't ending soon. Don't expect it to end before you die, for that matter. Free people come and go, but we keep fighting the global war for democracy. My advice is to get comfortable with it or resign yourself to servitude.

The tree of freedom must be watered with the blood of heroes and tyrants.

Think of today's news as a lovely spring shower. :wink:

[JuntaJoe]

Captured papers show weakening insurgency


A document purportedly captured in an al-Qaida hideout portrays the insurgency in Iraq as being in "bleak" shape, saying that it is losing strength and proposing ways to stir up trouble between the U.S. and Iran to divert American attention.

On Friday, the U.S. military said a key terror leader linked to the deaths of at least six coalition soldiers was captured in Karbala, a day after the local council issued strong protests over the arrests of three members.

The military said Iraqi soldiers, assisted by coalition advisers, conducted an early morning ground assault raid on Thursday in the Shiite holy city, 50 miles south of Baghdad, and captured "a high-ranking terrorist network commander without firing a shot."

The suspect was identified by the military as Sheik Aqeel.

"Aqeel commands a Karbala terrorist network and is wanted for assassinating Iraqi citizens and planning and ordering attacks against Iraqi and coalition forces," the military said in a statement.

Meanwhile, American and Iraqi forces have killed 104 insurgents in 452 raids nationwide since al-Qaida in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed last week, the U.S. military said.

Arrests, weapons seizures and money shortages are taking a heavy toll on al-Qaida's insurgency in Iraq, according to the three-page transcript released Thursday by the Iraqi government, which said it reflects al-Qaida policy and the terror organization's cooperation with groups loyal to Saddam Hussein.

There was no way to confirm the authenticity of the information attributed to al-Qaida, and U.S. and Iraqi officials offered conflicting accounts of when and where it was seized.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's office said Iraqi forces found the document in al-Zarqawi's hideout after the June 7 U.S. airstrike that killed him.

However, U.S. Maj. Gen. William Caldwell said the document had been taken from a computer in a raid during the three-week operation to track down al-Zarqawi.

Caldwell said sweeps across Iraq since al-Zarqawi's death led to 28 significant arms caches. He said the raids included 255 joint operations and 143 by Iraqi forces alone.

The al-Qaida document said its insurgency was being hurt by an increase in U.S.-trained Iraqi forces, by widespread arrests and seizures of weapons, and by a crackdown on financial outlets.

According to a translation provided by National Security Adviser Mouwafak al-Rubaie, the document said the best way to overcome the "current bleak situation" would be to involve U.S. forces in a "war against another country" or hostile group.

The way to do this, the document said, "is to try and inflame the situation between America and Iran" or between the U.S. and followers of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's most influential Shiite cleric.

It suggests carrying out a range of terrorist acts for which it will falsely implicate Iran, including bombings in the West and kidnappings. It also recommends declaring the existence of a relationship between Iran and terrorist groups, and disseminating bogus confessions showing that Iran has weapons of mass destruction.

Vice President Dick Cheney said the document, if authenticated, shows the terrorists know they are losing the war.

The words "are fascinating because they do reveal — obviously whoever wrote them, assuming they are authentic — somebody who believes they are on the losing end of the engagement," Cheney said on the Sean Hannity radio show.

"I think the psychological business here is really enormously important as well, too. Somebody said the other day that ... the way we win is when ... the terrorists finally become convinced that we won't quit."

Al-Rubaie called it "the beginning of the end of al-Qaida in Iraq."

"Now we have the upper hand," he told reporters. "We feel that we know their locations, the names of their leaders, their whereabouts, their movements, through the documents we found during the last few days."

Mustafa Alani, a terror expert at the Gulf Research Center in Dubai, said he did not believe the document was authentic.

"I wonder why they would put their strategy down in writing, even on a computer. These people learned a good lesson a long time ago," he said, recalling that one of al-Zarqawi's computers was seized earlier.

Terror consultant Evan Kohlmann called Alani's criticism "simplistic."

"They do have to write these ideas down somewhere. At a certain point, you have to have written records," said Kohlmann, the New York-based founder of globalterroralert.com.

But, Kohlmann said, "it's impossible to say" whether the document is authentic. "Without knowing the author, it's really impossible to know the document's credibility, its relevance and its significance."

The U.S. military has in the past released documents it said were seized from Al-Qaida in Iraq, including one in February 2004 reportedly written by al-Zarqawi complaining that if the insurgency fails to prevent the handover of sovereignty, "then there will be no choice to pack our bags and move to another land..."

In May, documents were released that showed the group was concerned about disorganization within its cells in the capital area, with one extremist describing them as simply "a daily annoyance" to the Iraqi government.

Despite the document's pessimistic assessment and a fresh security crackdown in Baghdad, new violence erupted in the capital Thursday and at least 24 killings were reported throughout the country.

A bomb in a parked car detonated in a southwest Baghdad neighborhood, killing at least three civilians and wounding 14. In an even deadlier attack, gunmen shot and killed 10 men riding a bus in the industrial area of Baqouba, close to where al-Zarqawi was killed.

The U.S. military said Abu Ayyub al-Masri, an Egyptian with ties to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network, has taken over from al-Zarqawi as head of al-Qaida in Iraq. Al-Masri apparently is the man that the terrorist group identified in a Web posting last week as its new leader — Abu Hamza al-Muhajer, a nom de guerre, said Caldwell.

The military showed a picture of al-Masri — who was named in a most-wanted list issued in February 2005 by the U.S. command and who now has a $200,000 bounty on his head — wearing a traditional white Arab headdress.

Al-Qaida has been responsible for numerous attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq, where the American death toll has now hit 2,500, according to the military.

Meanwhile, the Iraqi prime minister pressed forward with a plan to begin reconciling Iraq's ethnic and sectarian groups. But he canceled a planned announcement of the program, apparently after disagreements with Sunni Arab and Kurdish members of his coalition government.

Al-Maliki has opened the door for talks with insurgents opposed to the country's political process as part of his national reconciliation initiative, but said any negotiations would exclude terrorist groups. The plan could include a pardon for some prisoners.

Yassin Majeed, an aide to al-Maliki, denied reports that talks were on with armed groups of any kind. "There is absolutely no dialogue with any armed group at the present time."

Copyright © 2006 The Associated Press.