US general says 'spectacular' Qaeda attacks rise in Iraq

BAGHDAD (AFP) — A US commander on Wednesday said the number of "spectacular" assaults by Al-Qaeda in Iraq has increased although the overall number of attacks was down and 20 key militants have been killed or caught.

Major General Mark Hertling, commanding general of coalition forces in northern Iraq, gave no specific examples of what he termed "spectacular" attacks, referring only to big car bombs and to suicide attacks.

"These spectacular events and intimidation are designed to incite fear in the population," Hertling told a news conference in Baghdad.

Suicide bombers have continued to carry out bloody attacks in recent weeks, with one killing 25 people and wounding 85 on Christmas Day, when he slammed his vehicle into a truck carrying gas cylinders at a checkpoint in the northern oil town of Baiji.

The same month, a woman suicide bomber killed 16 people in the offices of a local anti-Qaeda front in Muqdadiyah, in Diyala province, while another bomber killed 13 people inside a cafe near the Diyala provincial capital Baquba.

None of the recent attacks, however, has brought the sort of death tolls seen in 2006 and earlier in 2007 when the numbers killed could exceed 100, and the general's definition of spectacular was unclear.

Several members or leaders of "Awakening" groups -- local men paid by the US to fight Al-Qaeda -- have also been killed recently.

Hertling was speaking a day after US and Iraqi forces launched a fresh assault against Al-Qaeda in Iraq, codenamed Operation Phantom Phoenix, which the general said was taking place in four central and northern provinces.

The general declined to disclose how many troops were involved in Phantom Phoenix but said a total of 24,000 US soldiers were deployed in Diyala, Salaheddin, Nineveh and Tamim provinces.

He said "20 to 30" Al-Qaeda in Iraq fighters had been killed since the launch in Diyala province of Operation Iron Harvest, which forms part of Phantom Phoenix.

"It's about right (20-30 killed), but I dont want to put a body count on it," the general said.

Even before the operation was launched, Hertling claimed, US and Iraqi forces had made a dent in the Al-Qaeda network.

"The intelligence we gathered over the last month allowed coalition forces and Iraqi security forces to capture or kill over 20 Al-Qaeda in Iraq members," Hertling said, without breaking down the numbers.

One of those killed was Haydar al-Afri, a senior Al-Qaeda leader for the northwestern Mosul region, "responsible for organising the flow of foreign fighters into Iraq and for operations in Mosul."

A military statement said that Afri was involved "in facilitating resources and planning attacks against Iraqi and coalition forces."

He was killed during operations in the oil city of Mosul, along with eight other suspected militants, on Christmas Day.

"Where we have seen a reduction in the number of attacks in Iraq, and to a lesser degree in northern Iraq, there has been a marked increase of Al-Qaeda activity in Diyala in the form of high profile, spectacular attacks," said Hertling.

"This does not mean an increase in attacks, but it does mean an increase of these kind of high profile events."