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Al-Qaida escapee is killed in Iraq raid

By TIMES WIRES
Published September 26, 2006

British forces in Iraq shot and killed leading al-Qaida terrorist Omar al-Farouq on Monday, more than a year after he embarrassed the U.S. military by making an unprecedented escape from a maximum security military prison in Afghanistan, officials said.

Al-Farouq, thought to be one of al-Qaida's former top lieutenants in Indonesia, was gunned down after he opened fire on British forces during a raid on his home in Basra, said Maj. Charlie Burbridge, a British forces spokesman.

"He was a terrorist of considerable significance," Burbridge said.

Al-Farouq and three others boasted about their breakout from Bagram on a video broadcast in October 2005. They claimed to have plotted their escape on a Sunday when many Americans on the base were off duty. One of the four said he picked the lock of their cell.

OTHER DEVELOPMENTS

Three Marines from Camp Pendleton will face courts-martial on murder and kidnapping charges in the death of an Iraqi man in the town of Hamdania, the Marine Corps said Monday. Gen. James Mattis, the commanding general in the case, said he would not seek the death penalty. The three were among seven Marines and one Navy corpsman charged with kidnapping and murdering 52-year-old Hashim Ibrahim Awad in April. The other five face preliminary hearings in coming weeks.

Retired military officers Monday accused Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld of bungling the war in Iraq, saying that U.S. troops were sent to fight without the best equipment and that critical facts were hidden from the public. "I believe that Secretary Rumsfeld and others in the administration did not tell the American people the truth for fear of losing support for the war in Iraq," retired Maj. Gen. John R.S. Batiste told a forum conducted by Senate Democrats. Retired Maj. Gen. Paul Eaton called Rumsfeld "incompetent strategically, operationally and tactically." Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, a member of the Armed Services Committee, dismissed the Democratic-sponsored event as "an election-year smoke screen."

Stretched thin by the war in Iraq, the Army is again extending the combat tours of thousands of soldiers beyond the promised 12 months - the second such move since August. About 4,000 soldiers of the 1st Brigade, 1st Armored Division, had been expecting to return to their home base in Germany in mid January. Instead, they will stay an extra 46 days in Iraq, until late February, the Pentagon announced Monday. The soldiers are operating in western Anbar province, one of the most violent parts of Iraq. The Pentagon also announced that the 4th Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, will deploy to Iraq 30 days earlier than scheduled, starting in late October. The 4th Brigade is based at Fort Hood, Texas.

[Last modified September 26, 2006, 00:39:13]