Task Force 145, the group tasked with hunting al Qaeda in Iraq, has been busy in Baghdad

al Qaeda in Iraq's Mujahideen Shura.

The Iraqi Interior Ministry has announced the death of Abu Jaafar al-Liby, a senior al Qaeda commander during a raid in Baghdad. Four other terrorists were killed and two captured during the operation. Al-Liby's stature within al Qaeda in Iraq will be immediately called in question as the Interior Ministry has stated he is the second in command of the organization. The Associated Press describes al-Liby as follows:

Al-Liby had been in charge of the Baghdad sector of Al Qaeda in Iraq, Khalaf said. He said two letters were found on his body -- one for bin Laden and the other for [Abu Ayyab] al-Masri, who took over Al Qaeda in Iraq from Abu Musab al-Zarqawi after he was killed in a U.S. airstrike north of Baghdad on June 7. Both letters pledged loyalty and promised more attacks.

Al-Liby, in addition to being the commander of al Qaeda in Iraq's Baghdad operations, sat on the Mujahideen Shura [or council], the umbrella organization of extremist jihadi groups designed to legitimize al Qaeda's actions in Iraq. Baghdad is al Qaeda in Iraq's most critical area of operations, the the possession of letters swearing alligence to bin Laden and al-Masri indicates he is a major player in the organization.

As we stated during the controversy over the capture of Hamed Jumaa Farid al-Saeedi, another member of the Mujahideen Shura, "[The identification of al Qaeda's senior commanders] is complicated by the fact that Al-Qaeda does not publish their 'organizational leadership charts' for obvious security reasons, and the terrorist group does not operate on strict, classical Western leadership models. Al-Qaeda operatives often wear many hats and fill leadership and operational positions as needed."

The unnamed, captured al Qaeda commander is described as "a senior Al Qaeda terrorist and personal associate of the group's new leader, Abu Ayyab al-Masri." Task Force 145 has been busy, as "During the past two weeks, more than 150 focused operations resulted in 66 terrorists killed and 830 terror suspects detained."