By Andrew L. Jaffee

Even in the gloom of my Iraq despair, rays of hope shine through sometimes. Al-Qaeda in Iraq has lost one of its top excuses for a human being, reports Australia’s News Limited:

AL-QAEDA has confirmed the death of a senior lieutenant to the movement’s chief Osama bin Laden, according to a video posted on the Internet today which also announced a coming “victory” in Iraq.

An al-Qaeda leader who gave his name as Abu Yahia al-Libi said in the video that the Kuwaiti-born Omar al-Farouk had “fallen a martyr” in Iraq, and detailed his career in militancy, which began in Bosnia-Herzegovina. …

Farouk, who was 35 and also went by the name Mahmud Ahmed Mohammed al-Rashid, had been accused of leading the al-Qaeda Islamist network in Southeast Asia.

Genetic tests on his remains proved his identity, the US-led coalition said last month.

Farouk was arrested in Indonesia in July 2002 at a time when he was allegedly planning attacks on Western embassies in Jakarta.

On July 10 last year he managed to escape from a US airbase in Afghanistan.

Farouk’s escape along with three other suspects from Bagram air base was an embarrassment for US authorities, and the militant appeared on Arabic television in a video to brag about his flight.