By PAULINE JELINEK, Associated Press Writer Fri Sep 28, 6:06 PM ET
al-Qaida
Iraq
WASHINGTON - A U.S. airstrike killed one of the most seniorleaders in, a Tunisian linked to the kidnapping and killings last summer of American soldiers, a top commander said Friday.
Brig. Gen. Joseph Anderson said the death of the suspected terrorist in a U.S. airstrike Tuesday south of Baghdad, and recent similar operations against al-Qaida, have left the organization in Iraq fractured.
Abu Osama al-Tunisi was killed along with two other terrorist suspects in a U.S. F-16 strike that dropped two 500-pound laser-guided bombs on a safehouse where they were meeting, said the U.S. Central Command Air Forces.
"Al-Tunisi was one of the most senior leaders ... the emir of foreign terrorists in Iraq and part of the inner leadership circle," Anderson told a Pentagon news conference.
Al-Tunisi was a leader in helping bring foreign terrorists into the country, said Anderson, chief of staff to the No. 2 U.S. commander in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Ray Odierno.
Speaking by videoconference from Baghdad, Anderson said that al-Tunisi operated in Youssifiyah, southwest of Baghdad, November '04 and became the overall emir of Youssifiyah in the summer of '06.
His group was responsible for kidnapping American soldiers in June 2006, Anderson said.
Anderson did not name the soldiers and Pentagon officials said they did not immediately know to whom he was referring. But three U.S. soldiers were killed that month in an ambush-kidnapping that happened while they were guarding a bridge.
Spc. David J. Babineau was killed at a river checkpoint south of Baghdad on June 16, 2006, and Pfc. Kristian Menchaca and Pfc. Thomas Tucker were abducted. The mutilated bodies of the kidnapped soldiers were found three days later, tied together and booby-trapped with bombs.
Anderson said recent coalition operations have helped cut in half the flow of foreign fighters into Iraq, which had been at about 60 to 80 a month.
He credited the work of the Iraqi Department of Border Enforcement and U.S. teams.
Commanders have said that the increase in troops ordered by President Bush in January  and the increased operations that followed  have pushed militants into remote parts of the north and south of the country. Additional operations have been going after those pockets of fighters.
"We're having great success in isolating these pockets," Anderson said.
"They are very broken up, very unable to mass, and conducting very isolated operations," he said. He could not estimate the number of foreign fighters in Iraq but said they commit over 80 percent of suicide bombings in the country.
Anderson said that he believes al-Qaida leadership is taking stock of its ability to disrupt U.S. and Iraqi government activities in Iraq. He said he thought they would shift their attention back to Afghanistan, where they had safe haven before the U.S. invasion that followed the 9/11 attacks.
Asked if he had any evidence they were returning to Afghanistan, Anderson said: "Obviously, they had a base there already and what we would think would be ... they would want to expand that base if they can. The question becomes, how much can they?"
Anderson said he believes al-Qaida is "fractured, ruptured, mitigated" in Iraq ... and the question becomes, where would they go? What would they do?"
He laid out a series of operations over the last two weeks that led up to the air strike on al-Tunisi in the town of Musayyib south of Baghdad.
He said associates of al-Tunisi's were captured on Sept. 12 and Sept. 14 in Mahmoudiya, where coalition forces targeted the network that helps bring foreign fighters in the southern belts around Baghdad.
More associates were captured over the next few days. On Sept. 25, commanders received information of a meeting between al-Tunisi and other al-Qaida members.
Al-Tunisi's presence was confirmed by a detainee who had just fled the area before the attack and was captured minutes later, Anderson said.
Abu al-TunisiThe United States announced today that an airstrike against a house in Yusufiyah, Iraq on Tuesday completed its mission, killing insurgent commander Abu Usama al-Tunisi and two others. The airstrike, by an F-16 carrying two 500 lb bombs, came hours after a tip that al-Tunisi would be holding a meeting that day. 

However, al-Tunisi had been reported dead more than a year ago. 

downing of a helicopter, and mutilation of a pilot, by al-Tunisi's "Aeisha" brigade.The Tunisian militant had come to American attention during the Second Battle of Fallujah in November 2004, and had overseen anti-aircraft missions and participated in the 2005 attack against Abu Ghraib.  His death was reported by Abu al-Zarqawi's army on May 20, 2006 in an al-Hesbah communique later translated and released by FBI Terrorism consultant Evan Kohlmann. He was reportedly killed after a US helicopter attack in Yusufiyah killed him and four other insurgents.

Following this week's bombing, Brig. Gen. Joseph Anderson addressed a press conference at the Pentagon stating that the death of al-Tunisi would "fracture" the Sunni insurgency within the country - claiming that the man was "one of the most senior leaders" and "part of the inner leadership circle". His name did not appear on the Iraqi Government's list of 41 Most Wanted.

Anderson also stated that al-Tunisi's group, the Aisha Battalion of anti-aircraft operations, was responsible for the kidnappings and deaths of US soldiers in June of 2006, a month after he was reported killed. While the Army could not confirm which soldiers Anderson was referencing, a June 16 kidnapping led to the death of Spc. David J. Babineau, Pfc. Kristian Menchaca and Pfc. Thomas Tucker who were guarding a bridge into Baghdad. 

al-Tunisi was said to be a potential replacement for al-Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Hamza al-Muhajir who was killed by tribesmen in May of this year. Multinational Force Iraq spokesman Maj. Winfield Danielson stated that “This is one more al-Qaeda in Iraq criminal who will never kill another innocent civilian,” although all of al-Tunisi's known targets were American soldiers, not Iraqi civilians.

While the military stated that they had "definitively identified" the body as being al-Tunisi, they refused to elaborate on their methods of verification - stating only that two captured Iraqis told them that it was al-Tunisi. Although a letter found inside the house referred to being "desperate" and being unable to travel outside the city - it was unsigned, and the only evidence that it was written by al-Tunisi was that it "was with his belongings".

The tip was confirmed by a local Iraqi arrested near the site of the house just before the bombing, which killed three. Military press releases reported that al-Tunisi's body had been "definitively" identified and that his handwriting was evident on papers inside the bombed house.

Kohlmann said the contradiction raised "some pretty serious questions", and that any claims that al-Tunisi could have faked his own death to deceive US military intelligence would be "virtually unprecedented" behaviour for the insurgents.

In May, the US military was forced to admit that Brig. Gen. Kevin Bergner's announcement declaring the death of al-Qaeda in Iraq lieutenant Kamal Jalil Uthman was incorrect after the San Francisco Examiner pointed out that the army had already reported Uthman killed a year earlier, in a document entitled "Tearing Down al Qaeda".