*Perilous Times

Al-Qaeda 'kills, wounds' 4000 in six months*

 From correspondents in Baghdad

July 11, 2007 11:52pm
Article from: Agence France-Presse

AL-QAEDA in Iraq killed or wounded more than 4000 Iraqis in suicide
attacks in the past six months, US military spokesman Brigadier General
Kevin Bergner said today.

Bergner said most of these attacks were carried out by foreign-born
“terrorists” and that while their numbers are “relatively small ...
their effects are very, very devastating on the people of Iraq.”

He said that around 60 to 80 foreigners are brought to Iraq every month
by al-Qaeda in Iraq, a local militant group that sprang up in the wake
of the US-led invasion of March 2003 and professes allegiance to the
global Jihadi front.

“They are the principal threat in a complex security environment.
al-Qaeda is the principal destability factor targeting the Government of
Iraq,” Brig-Gen Bergner said, in a weekly briefing largely dedicated to
the al-Qaeda threat.

He said US-led coalition forces continued to target the group's
strongholds across Iraq and that they had “killed or captured 26
high-level leaders during May and June”.