U.S. troops kill Swedish al-Qaida leader

• 

  Abu Qaswarah

• Slain terror leader was Swedish citizen
  KIRKUK, Iraq (AP) – Abu Qaswarah, described as al-Qaida’s No. 2 in Iraq who was killed earlier this month by the U.S. military, held Swedish citizenship, the Iraqi defense ministry said on Oct. 16.
  "Abu Qaswarah is a Swede of Moroccan origin," ministry spokesman General Mohammed al-Askari said.
  The US military on Oct. 15 revealed Abu Qaswarah was killed on October 5 during a raid on a building in the main northern Iraqi city of Mosul where suspected al-Qaida militants were holed up.
  Also on Oct. 15, Sweden's security police, SÄPO, said U.S. troops killed a Swedish citizen of Moroccan descent in northern Iraq at the beginning of October.
  The Swedish news agency TT later said the man was Abu Qaswarah.
  A statement on Wednesday by the US military said "Abu Qaswarah, also known as Abu Sara, was the Al-Qaeda in Iraq senior leader of northern Iraq."
  It said Abu Qaswarah was a native of Morocco with ties to Al-Qaeda in Iraq's founder Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was killed in a U.S. airstrike in Iraq in June 2006.
  Abu Qaswara was linked to the Brandbergen mosque in Stockholm, which in the past has been connected to extremist Islamic networks, the U.S. said.
  The raid also led to the death of four other insurgents as well as three women and three children, the military said in an earlier report.
  According to the defense ministry, the Americans took away the body of Abu Qaswara for DNA analysis before concluding that he was the Al-Qaeda chief on their wanted list.
  Information on the group was initially collected through the "infiltration" of al-Qaida as well as relatives "close to terrorists," Askari said.
  "This is a defeat for al-Qaida and proof that we have infiltrated them and we follow them from city to city, and we will continue this until their total destruction," he added.