Coalition and Iraqi forces killed a wanted terrorist, Rafid Ibrahim Fattah aka Abu Umar al Kurdi, during an early morning raid March 27 in the vicinity of Abu Ghraib. Officials report and confirm that Abu Umar al Kurdi had ties to Jaysh al Islami, Ansar al Sunnah, Taliban members in Afghanistan, Pakistani-based extremists, and al Qaeda senior leaders to include Osama bin Laden and Ayman al Zawahiri.
Over the past six months, the targeted terrorist worked as a Jaysh al Islami cell leader in Baquba and allegedly was involved in the kidnapping of an Iraqi woman. Abu Umar al Kurdi traveled extensively throughout Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq over the past 15 years and met and formed a relationship with al Qaeda senior leaders in 1999 while in Afghanistan. In the 1980s he formed ties with the Muslim Brotherhood while in Iran and Pakistan, and then he joined the jihad in Afghanistan in 1989. Within months he was given the title of an al Qaeda ambassador and attended military training camps near Jalabad where Osama bin Laden often visited. In 1991 he returned to the Muslim Brotherhood in Peshawar and in 1992 moved to Iraq, joining the Islamic Movement of Kurdistan. Throughout the 1990s until his death, Abu Umar al Kurdi moved between Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan holding various positions to include serving as a liaison between terrorist networks, as an operations officer responsible for coordinating the activities of the various terrorist groups, and as a security chief for a terrorist training camp in Afghanistan.
A detainee who admitted his own affiliation with JAI claimed that Abu Umar al Kurdi recruited him into the terrorist organization. The detainee claims he joined in Sept. 2004 when Abu Umar al Kurdi introduced him to the leader of JAI.
The detainee also told officials that Abu Umar al Kurdi kidnapped and murdered a female hostage several months ago. Officials confirmed the hostage taking and are currently investigating the alleged murder.
(Courtesy of MNF-I, Combined Press Information Center and taken from press release A060413b)
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