http://www.worldtribune.com/worldtribune/WTARC/2007/ss_iraq_09_30.asp

Monday, October 1, 2007 New: Take a Stand

Last letter from doomed Al Qaida chief: 'We are so desperate for your
help'

BAGHDAD - The U.S. military is eliminating Al Qaida's chain of command in
Iraq.

Officials said several leading aides to Al Qaida network chief Abu Ayoub
Al Masri have been killed by the U.S.-led coalition. They said two out of
the four foreign aides of Al Masri remain alive.

On Sept. 25, the U.S. military killed an Al Qaida chief deemed
responsible for transporting foreign operatives to Iraq. The Al Qaida
commander, identified as Abu Osama Al Tunisi, was killed in a U.S. air
strike as he met his colleagues in Musayib, about 60 kilometers south of
Baghdad.

Shortly before he died, Al Tunisi wrote a letter that warned of a threat
to Al Qaida operations in Karkh. The lettter, found by the U.S. military,
sought guidance from Al Qaida leaders amid coalition operations that
hampered Al Tunisi's network.

"We are so desperate for your help," the letter read.

"This was a dangerous terrorist who is no longer a part of Al Qaida in
Iraq," U.S. Brig. Gen. Joseph Anderson, chief of staff of the
Multinational Corps Iraq, said. "His death deals a significant blow to
their operation. Abu Osama Al Tunisi was one of the most senior leaders
within Al Qaida in Iraq."

Anderson said Al Tunisi and two other Al Qaida operatives were killed in
the U.S. Air Force bombing mission. The brigadier told a Sept. 28
briefing that an F-16 multi-role fighter leveled the building where Al
Tunisi had been meeting Al Qaida operatives.

Al Tunisi was said to have been a leading adviser to Al Masri, officials
said. They said Al Tunisi, a Tunisian national, might have been
designated Al Masri's successor.

"The inner circle of leadership with Abu Ayoub Al Masri consists of
foreigners, and Al Tunisi was in this top tier of leadership," Anderson
said.

This was the second leading aide of Al Masri killed in less than a month.
On Aug. 31, another member of Al Masri's inner circle, Abou Yaakoub Al
Masri, was killed near Tarmiyah, north of Baghdad. Anderson said the two
remaining foreign leaders of Al Masri's inner circle remain at large.

"The top two Iraqis, Abu Shahed and Abdallah Latif Al Jaburi, have also
been captured or killed," Anderson said.

Al Tunisi was termed the emir, or commander, of foreign operatives in
Iraq. Anderson said Al Tunisi was responsible for the arrival of Al Qaida
recruits into Iraq and their placement in operational cells.

Officials said more than 80 percent of suicide bombings have been by
foreign operatives. They said most of the Al Qaida recruits arrive in
Syria by air and continue overland into Iraq.

Al Tunisi was said to have been operating in Yusufiyah, southwest of
Baghdad, since November 2004. Officials said he became commander of the
area in 2006 and was responsible for the abduction and killing of two
U.S. soldiers in June of that year.

The U.S.-led coalition operation began on Sept. 12 when an Al Tunisi aide
was captured. Officials said the aide provided information that led to
the capture of other key associates of Al Tunisi south and west of
Baghdad.

One of the aides was said to have identified Al Tunisi at the meeting in
Musayib. The other two Al Qaida insurgents killed in the F-16 bombing
were identified as Abu Abdullah, said to be the new commander of the
southern part of Baghdad's Karkh region, and Sheik Hussein, an Al Qaida
facilitator.