Senior Al Qaeda Figure Believed Killed in Airstrike

The American Forces Press Service reports that Abu Dua, who facilitated the infiltration of al Qaeda terrorists into Iraq from Syria, was reprotedly in an Al Qaeda safehouse destroyed today by Coalition aircraft in Ushsh, Iraq:

According to intelligence sources, Dua was connected to the intimidation, torture and murder of local civilians in the Qaim area. Dua held religious courts to try local citizens charged with supporting the Iraqi government and coalition forces. He would kidnap individuals or entire families, accuse them, pronounce sentence and then publicly execute them, U.S. officials said.

Dua's al Qaeda connections extended to Syria and Saudi Arabia, from where most of his foreign fighters were recruited. He set up and ran a system that funneled foreign fighters from Syria into the Qaim area. These fighters were then sent to local terrorist cells, where they attacked innocent Iraqi citizens and Iraqi security and coalition forces.

Abu Dua's body has not yet been recovered, so his death is predicated on intelligence sources who say he was in the building at the time of the attack.