[McClatchy-Miami Herald] Jonathan S. Landay and Nancy A. Youssef - A CIA-led raid on a compound in eastern Syria killed an Al-Qaeda in Iraq commander who oversaw the smuggling into Iraq of foreign fighters whose attacks claimed thousands of Iraqi and American lives, three U.S. officials said Monday. The body of Badran Turki Hishan al-Mazidih, an Iraqi national who used the nom de guerre Abu Ghadiya, was flown out of Syria on a U.S. helicopter at the end of the operation Sunday, one U.S. official said. "This was a significant blow to the foreign fighter pipeline between Syria and Iraq," said a second U.S. official. "Former Al-Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab al Zarqawi appointed Badran (al-Mazidih) as the group's Syrian commander for logistics in 2004," the U.S. Treasury Department said.
2008-10-28 01:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive