Fugitive Al Qaeda terrorist- Bin Laden lieutenant killed by British troops- linked to Indonesian bombings -plotted attacks on U.S. embassies

September 26, 2006
http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2006440619,00.html
AN al-Qaeda leader was shot dead by British troops in Iraq yesterday.

Omar Farouq was killed at a house in Basra after opening fire on soldiers who had surrounded it.

The fugitive is thought to have returned to Iraq two weeks ago after carrying out attacks on US forces in Afghanistan.

The operation involved 250 men from 1st Battalion, the Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment.

British Forces spokesman Major Charlie Burbidge called Farouq "a terrorist of considerable significance".

He was Osama Bin Laden's lieutenant in South East Asia and linked to a series of kidnappings and murders.

He escaped from a US jail in Afghanistan last year, later appearing on Arab TV to brag about the breakout.

Security experts say he joined Bin Laden's network in the 1990s and trained in Afghanistan.

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,1881381,00.html

UK troops kill fugitive al-Qaida leader

Agencies
Tuesday September 26, 2006 Guardian Unlimited

Omar al-Farouq was killed yesterday after he opened fire on British soldiers who were raiding his home in the southern city of Basra, Major Charlie Burbridge said.

Maj Burbridge refused to confirm that the dead man was definitely the same person who allegedly led al-Qaida's operations in south-east Asia, saying only he was understood to be a leading terrorist.

However, a police officer in Basra said al-Farouq was the same escaped prisoner, adding that he had entered Iraq three months ago under the name Mahmoud Ahmed and was known to be a bomb-making expert.

Some 250 British troops from the Princess of Wales Royal Regiment took part in the raid on al-Farouq's home. "We had information that a terrorist of considerable significance was hiding in Basra. As a result of that information we conducted an operation in an attempt to arrest him," Maj Burbridge said.

"During the attempted arrest, Omar Farouq was killed, which is regrettable because we wanted to arrest him."

Al-Farouq and three other al-Qaida suspects escaped from Bagram in central Afghanistan in July 2005, although US officials did not confirm the escape until four months later.

The four fugitives boasted about their breakout on a video broadcast in October last year on the Dubai-based television station al-Arabiya. They claimed to have plotted their escape on a Sunday, when many Americans on the base were off duty, with one of the four picking the lock of their cell.

Born in Kuwait to Iraqi parents, al-Farouq is believed to have joined al-Qaida in the early 1990s and trained in Afghanistan before unsuccessfully trying to enrol at a flight school in the Philippines to train for a suicide mission.

He is thought to have later plotted bombings at US embassies across south-east Asia before being arrested in Indonesia in June 2002. He was described then as one of the most significant al-Qaida figures to have been captured. His escape deeply annoyed Indonesia, which handed al-Farouq over to US custody.

Al-Farouq's Indonesian wife said today she had yet to hear confirmation of his death. "I still have faith he is still alive," Mira Agustina told Indonesia's el-Shinta radio.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5379604.stm

His disappearance, along with three other suspected militants, from a high-security detention centre in Bagram, Afghanistan, was hugely embarrassing for the US, which hushed up the escape for several months.

Farouq had been passed to the US authorities after being arrested in Indonesia in 2002.

Born to Iraqi parents in Kuwait in 1971, Farouq is believed to have joined al-Qaeda in the early 1990s and trained in Afghanistan.

He became one of Osama Bin Laden's top lieutenants in south-east Asia and is believed to have been planning bomb attacks on US embassies there when he was arrested.

Farouq is thought to have been a key link between al-Qaeda and the militant group Jemaah Islamiyah, blamed for bombings in Indonesia, including the Bali attacks of 12 October 2002, in which more than 200 people were killed.

Shootout

While on the run, Farouq taunted his pursuers by appearing in a video on an Islamist website in February this year.

"I say to the Americans... we will fight them... in Iraq and in their country," he said.

"They will not be able to stop the march of jihad... with their checkpoints, forces, machinery, advanced equipment. No matter how strong or equipped they are, they will not defeat the Almighty."

But Farouq was back in the sights of the coalition forces, who had tracked him across Iraq to Basra.

On 25 September 2006, more than 200 UK troops launched a pre-dawn operation to arrest him at a hideout in the centre of the city.

But, according to British military spokesman Maj Charlie Burbridge, Farouq fired on the troops and was killed in the gun battle which ensued.