BRIEFS

PAKISTANI MILITANTS HUNT AND KILL POLICE SERGEANT IN BAJAUR AGENCY

In an incident that highlights the growing power of the local Taliban and other Islamists in Pakistan’s tribal regions, militants recently tracked and gunned down a Pakistani police sergeant in Bajaur Agency. The significance of the assassination is that the sergeant, Tariq Ali Zamin, was targeted by the militants due to his involvement in a police operation that killed al-Qaeda operative Abu Marwan Hadid al-Suri, a Syrian who was wanted by the United States (Terrorism Focus, May 2). Militants hunted Zamin down and killed him for his involvement in the past operation. According to a fellow police officer, “After the al-Qaeda operation he appeared to be under some pressure” (GulfNews.com, July 19). The same officer, who was a friend of Zamin, said that the sergeant had received a letter shortly before his death, stating, “You have taken part in an operation against true mujahideen and you will not live.” Zamin was assassinated after militants on motorcycles drove up beside his car outside Khar and shot him in the head; the militants evaded capture (GulfNews.com, July 19). The assassination shows the tenuous security situation in Pakistan’s tribal areas, and is a testimony to the growing clout of the local Taliban and other al-Qaeda affiliated militants in Pakistan.

IRAQI FORCES TAKE DOWN LEADERS OF THE OMAR BRIGADE

On July 18, Iraqi security officials announced that they had disrupted the top leadership of the Omar Brigade. Iraqi National Security Adviser Muwafaq al-Rubaie told reporters that security forces had captured four of the organization’s leaders— Abu Uthman, Abu Aisha, Abu Eyhab and Mahmoud Abu Islam—and had killed a fifth, a Jordanian by the name of Abu al-Afghani (whose real name is Diyar Ismail Mahmoud) (KUNA, July 18). The Omar Brigade, comprised of foreign fighters, is a sub-organization of al-Qaeda in Iraq and was formed by the late Abu Musab al-Zarqawi with the purpose of targeting Iraq’s Shiite population (Middle East Newsline, July 17). In addition to undertaking attacks on Shiites, officials also believe that al-Zarqawi formed the sub-organization in order to combat the Badr Brigade, a Shiite militia run by the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution of Iraq (SCIRI).