Baghdad - Ten days after meeting with US President George W Bush, tribal leader and head of the Anbar Salvation Council Abdul- Sattar Abu Risha was killed 50 metres away from his home Thursday in Ramadi in Anbar province, media reports said. An explosive charge targeted the Sunni Abu Risha's convoy killing him and his driver and two security guards immediately, independent Voices of Iraq news agency reported citing senior officer Mohamed al- Alwani from Ramadi police department.
Al-Alwani added that ever since Abu Risha formed the Anbar Salvation Council, which aimed at quelling the al-Qaeda terrorist network in Iraq, he had become a target of the terrorist organization.
Analysts believe al-Qaeda considered Abu Risha their second main enemy after the Americans.
Anbar Salvation Council recently announced that al-Qaeda militants had been cleared out of Anbar province, which was showcased by Bush as an example of success in Iraq. The council was supported by US- Iraqi forces.
A state of emergency and a curfew were, meanwhile, declared in Ramadi, 110 kilometres west of Baghdad.
In Baghdad, a car bomb targeted a police patrol in eastern Baghdad's Talabiya district, killing at least five people and wounding 10, including policemen, independent Voices of Iraq news (VOI) agency reported, citing a police source.
Joint Iraq-US forces meanwhile arrested the mastermind behind July's market bombings near the town of Tuz Khurmato during a military operation in the Sulaiman Bik area, VOI reported.
Abd Dalian Mohammed, detained on Wednesday evening, was believed to be a leading figure of the al-Qaeda-linked Islamic State in Iraq, an Iraqi police source was quoted by the agency as saying.
The source also said Mohammed led a network of gunmen in and around Tuz Khurmato and that investigations were under way to uncover the members of his group.
On July 7, at least 100 people were killed and more than 120 injured when a truck bomb rocked a busy market near Tuz Khurmato in Tamim province, 170 kilometres north of Baghdad.
In other developments, Iraqi security forces killed three suspected al-Qaeda terrorist network in Iraq and detained 80 during a three-day operation that ended Wednesday in the Hamrin Ridge and Diyala River Valley area of eastern Iraq, the US military said.
The detainees include four suspected al-Qaeda in Iraq terrorist cell leaders, the statement added.
Human rights officials from the Iraqi Islamic party said Thursday that 43 Iraqi detainees were released from US-run detention centres following an agreement signed with US forces last month, VOI reported.
Iraqi prisoners would be released on a daily basis from US army detention during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, Omar al-Juburi, the human rights official of the Iraqi Islamic party, told VOI.
