Al-Qaida fleeing Iraq for Africa

BAGHDAD, July 8 (UPI) -- Fighters with al-Qaida of Mesopotamia are fleeing Iraq to set up safe havens in Somalia and Sudan, Iraqi security officials said Tuesday.

Former Basra police commander Maj. Gen. Abdul Jalil Khala told Gulf News attacks in Baghdad attributed to al-Qaida are down significantly since this time last year, adding the group is in decline.

"This also highlights the increasingly improving performance of the Iraqi armed forces and the speed by which they can operate in different places," he said.

U.S. and Iraqi military operations have targeted remaining al-Qaida fighters in recent months, most notably in the northern city of Mosul.

Iraqi officials at the Ministry for National Security Affairs said documents uncovered in suspected al-Qaida holdouts in the Sunni areas of Baghdad "prove these elements left Iraq for Somalia and Sudan."

"Our intelligence information indicates the withdrawal of certain groups of al-Qaida from Iraq because of the military strikes," Maj. Gen. Hussain Ali Kamal of the Iraqi Interior Ministry told Gulf News.

"I believe this is the beginning of the complete withdrawal of al-Qaida from Iraqi territory," he said.