Senior al Qaeda leader killed in Iraq: Ministry

Baghdad, May 3: US and Iraqi forces have killed the head of the self-styled Islamic State in Iraq, an al Qaeda-led militant group that has claimed many major attacks in the country, Iraq's deputy interior minister said today.

Hussein Kamal said Abu Omar al-Baghdadi had been killed in a battle north of Baghdad. He declined to say when but said authorities had recovered Baghdadi's body.

''Abu Omar al-Baghdadi was killed north of Baghdad by Iraqi and American forces. He died as a result of wounds sustained in clashes. The Interior Ministry has his body to carry out further checks,'' Kamal told Reuters by telephone.

US military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Christopher Garver declined to comment but said a news conference would be held later today to announce the ''success'' of an operation against Sunni Islamist al Qaeda.

He stressed that the topic would not be Abu Ayyub al-Masri, the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, which is the main al Qaeda network in the country.

Iraqi officials had said Masri was killed in a fight between insurgents north of Baghdad this week. The US military has been unable to confirm those reports and no body has been found.

The Islamic State in Iraq was set up in October by Al Qaeda in Iraq and some minor Sunni Arab insurgent groups.

It recently named a 10-man cabinet with a prime minister and portfolios including war, oil and Islamic affairs.

Masri was named war minister, with Baghdadi remaining leader of the Islamic State in Iraq. At the time, Masri said all followers had to pledge allegiance to Baghdadi.

The Islamic State in Iraq has claimed responsibility for a string of attacks, including mass kidnappings, major bomb attacks and the downing of US helicopters. It also denied earlier this week that Masri had been killed.

US officials have said that while killing senior al Qaeda figures in Iraq would be positive, it would not end the group's attacks. Al Qaeda is blamed for trying to tip the country into full-scale sectarian civil war.

US President George W Bush yesterday said al Qaeda was ''public enemy number one'' in Iraq. The Pentagon had previously called anti-US Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's Mehdi Army militia the greatest threat to peace in Iraq.

In February, Baghdadi vowed to widen attacks to all parts of Iraq instead of just focusing on the capital after Washington announced plans to beef up its forces in the city.

Baghdadi had said Bush was giving Muslim fighters a chance ''to slaughter the wounded crusader giant and take advantage of the collapsing morale of its soldiers and commanders''.

He has also sought to mend fences with some Sunni Arab insurgents groups that have begun to fall out with al Qaeda over its indiscriminate killing of civilians and its imposition of an austere brand of Islam in the areas where it holds sway.

REUTERS>