Two suspected al-Qaida hard boys snuffies militants were killed in a shootout as U.S.-led forces intensified bombing on parts of northern Iraq controlled by an Islamic terrorist group. Khaled al-Shami and Abdul al-Basir, killed in a firefight this week with Kurdish forces near the city of Halabja, were members of an Afghan-based al-Qaida cell, according to Khosrow Gul Mohammad, chief of security for the Kurdish government here. Khosrow described al-Shami and al-Basir as Jordanians of Palestinian origin who trained in Afghanistan with Osama bin Laden's group and belonged to a cell called Jund al-Islam. "After Afghanistan was attacked by the U.S.A., they decided to escape to a safe place," Khosrow said at a regularly scheduled briefing. "They chose to come to Kurdistan."
Sometimes life's just an unmitigated bitch, ain't it? |