Iraqi gunmen kill Qaeda's Fallujah leader

IRAQ: Unidentified gunmen shot dead a local Al-Qaeda leader in the western Iraqi city of Fallujah on Saturday, police said, as fighting between rival Sunni factions undermined the insurgency.

The apparent assassination of the militant kingpin came as the US military announced that marines and Iraqi security forces had killed seven Al-Qaeda fighters during an assault on a truck bomb factory.

Both incidents appeared to be linked to increased cooperation between Sunni factions, once sympathetic to the Iraqi resistance, and the US military, which is encouraging nationalist factions to fight Al-Qaeda. Colonel Tareq al-Dulaimi, a senior police intelligence officer with close ties to Anbar Province's pro-US tribal coalition, confirmed reports that Muwaffaq al-Jugheifi had been killed but did not identify the attackers.

Dulaimi described the slain Al-Qaeda leader as an Iraqi from Fallujah. A police captain, speaking on condition of anonymity, said: "Militants riding in two civilian cars opened fire on al-Jugheifi and his group on Saturday morning as they left the Abu Ayyub al-Ansari mosque."

"I can confirm that we know of Muwaffaq, he is known to be behind numerous crimes, including kidnapping," Major Jeff Pool, spokesman for Fallujah's US marines, told AFP, without confirming his death.

Fallujah is the focus of a large-scale security operation in which Iraqi police and tribal levies, backed by US forces, are trying to drive out Al-Qaeda Islamist militants.

Saturday's killing came after the Anbar Salvation Council, the armed wing of the province's tribal coalition, announced that it was sending plainclothes "secret police" to Baghdad to kill Al-Qaeda leaders.

The council, whose fighters include thousands of former insurgents, has fallen out with Al-Qaeda and thrown its lot in with US forces. It has sent gunmen to join the Iraqi police and pro-US tribal levies.

Baghdad, Sunday,AFP