Was Abu Azzam Really "#2" in Al-Zarqawi's Network? And How Serious Are Recent Threats to Attack France?
By Andrew Cochran
Abdullah Abu Azzam, the Al-Zarqawi lieutenant killed in Iraq on Sunday, is being labeled "the #2 Al Qaeda in Iraq" by the Pentagon and in media reports. Counterterrorism experts and students have learned, often the hard way, to never take claims of important tactical victories or defeats without skepticism and objective review. Evan Kohlmann is checking his sources and internet sites and will discuss Abu Azzam's place in the AZ network in a post later today or tomorrow. In the meantime, we invite you to review the AZ leadership chart that he prepared months ago (Acrobat file), which is always available in the "Counterterrorism Library" in the left sidebar and also on Evan's site. You'll notice that at the time that Evan prepared the chart, Abu Azzam held an important place in the network, but not in the innermost circle. Evan will also update his important post from September 24 on the status of the fight against the AZ network, the first time that Evan has expressed some optimism on this site about the battle.
Evan will also discuss the arrest of GSPC suspects in France and the potential threats to the Paris metro and airport. He posted about threats of attacks by "Al-Qaida in Northern Europe" on September 15, and about threats by the GSPC, with one message addressed to "our brothers in France," on September 6.
UPDATE: Steven Emerson was on Fox News this morning to discuss the Abu Azzam killing.
TrackBack
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://counterterrorismblog.org/mt/pings.cgi/1956
