US military says al-Qaeda member killed in Iraq

London, Apr 14: An insurgent with ties to Osama bin Laden and other senior al Qaeda figures was killed in a raid last month by US and Iraqi forces, the US military said today.

It said in a statement that Rafid Ibrahim Fattah, a ''wanted terrorist'' also known as Abu Umar al Kurdi, was killed near the Abu Ghraib prison outside the capital Baghdad.

It added that he was most recently a leader of a cell in Baquba, 65 km north of Baghdad, but had been in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq over the past 15 years, forming a relationship with al Qaeda leaders in 1999.

The statement could not be confirmed independently.

Reuters