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U.S. SAYS AL-QAIDA CHIEF DEAD

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The Associated Press

Published: October 28, 2008

SUKKARIYEH, Syria - A cross-border raid by U.S. special forces killed the al-Qaida-linked head of a Syrian network that smuggled fighters, weapons and cash into Iraq, an American counterterrorism official said Monday.

Blood stained the earth in this border village as anguished Syrians buried relatives they said were killed in the U.S. helicopter attack Sunday. Some shouted anti-American slogans and carried banners reading "Down with Bush and the American enemy."

The operation targeted the home of Abu Ghadiyah, the nickname for the leader of a key cell of foreign fighters in Iraq, the U.S. official told The Associated Press from Washington. The U.S. Treasury Department has named Abu Ghadiyah as one of four major figures in al-Qaida's Iraq wing who were living in Syria.

U.S. authorities have said Abu Ghadiyah's real name is Badran Turki al-Mazidih, an Iraqi in his early 30s who served as al-Qaida in Iraq's head of logistics in Syria since 2004.

His job included providing foreign fighters with passports, weapons, guides and safe houses as they slipped into Iraq and made their way to Baghdad and other major cities where the Sunni insurgency was raging.

Sunday's operation in Sukkariyeh, about five miles from the Iraqi border, came just days after the commander of U.S. forces in western Iraq called the Syrian border an "uncontrolled" gateway for fighters into Iraq and said efforts were being stepped up to secure it.

The raid was another sign the United States is aggressively launching military raids across the borders of Afghanistan and Iraq to destroy insurgent sanctuaries. In Pakistan, U.S. missile strikes have killed at least two senior al-Qaida operatives this year.

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