- Associated Press - Wednesday, December 29, 2010

BAGHDAD | Police commander Lt. Col. Shamil al-Jabouri knew al Qaeda wanted him dead. He was renowned in the tense northern city of Mosul for his relentless pursuit of the terror group, and insurgents had tried at least five times to kill him for it.

On the sixth attempt, al Qaeda left little to chance.

As Col. al-Jabouri slept Wednesday morning on a couch in his office, three men wearing police uniforms over vests laden with explosives slipped through an opening in the blast walls surrounding the compound where his building stood, police said.

Police manning one of at least four observation towers surrounding the compound shot one of the attackers in a yard and his vest exploded. Under the cover of that blast, police said, the other two suicide bombers charged about 100 yards and made it into Col. al-Jabouri’s single-story building.

They detonated their vests simultaneously — one at the door of Col. al-Jabouri’s office — killing the commander instantly and injuring a policeman sleeping in a trailer nearby. The two blasts brought the whole building down, burying the slain commander under the rubble, police said.

The attack on the commander responsible for hunting al Qaeda in Mosul — a former militant stronghold — was a reminder of the significant gaps in Iraqi security, the challenges the new government will face in trying to close them and the lengths insurgents will go to take out people they perceive as threats.

Just 10 days ago, Col. al-Jabouri led a raid that ended in the death of the top al Qaeda figure in Mosul, his colleagues said. And two months ago, he had been instrumental in stopping a gang that had been targeting jewelry stores in the city — robberies that are frequently ways for terror groups to refill their coffers.

“We’ve lost a sword of Mosul who chased al Qaeda terrorists out of the city,” said Abdul-Raheem al-Shemeri, a top security official on the Mosul Provincial Council.

An al Qaeda affiliate, the Islamic State of Iraq, took responsibility in a statement posted on the Internet. It said Col. al-Jabouri had been targeted several times before, but had not been deterred from fighting al Qaeda.

“This day was the decisive one,” the group said.

According to the militants’ statement, the attackers were dressed in police uniforms, which likely helped them get close to the compound — an abandoned soccer stadium — without raising suspicion.

Militants had tried to kill Col. al-Jabouri at least five times before, police officials said. A few months ago, Col. al-Jabouri’s guards shot a suicide bomber who approached the commander in an attempt to blow himself up, police said.

Al Qaeda-linked militants across the country, and especially in Mosul, have made wiping out Iraqi security officials like Col. al-Jabouri one of their main goals, in part to intimidate others from joining the security forces.

Mosul is home to a mixed Sunni Arab and Kurdish population, with a small Christian minority. The city along the Tigris River has long been a destination for Sunni militants infiltrating Iraq’s porous border with Syria.

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