New Al Qaida leader may have shown his hand

Dubai: As yet, there have been no claims of responsibility for the car bomb attacks that shook Iraq yesterday.

However, their coordinated, synchronised nature and the devastation they wreaked — shortly after 50,000 US troops withdrew from the country — suggest that Al Qaida in Iraq may well be responsible.

In a communiqué issued by Al Qaida in Iraq on the internet, the terrorist organisation said that Abu Al Waleed Abdul Wahab Al Mashhadani had taken over after both Abu Ayoub Al Masri and Abu Omar Al Baghdadi were killed in April in a US-Iraqi raid in Tharthar, 80 kilometres to the west of Baghdad.

Al Mashhadani, an Iraqi, is known for his brutality and possesses a better knowledge of Iraq than his foreign predecessors.