Mastermind of Iraq Yazidi attack killed-US military

BAGHDAD, Sep 9 (Reuters) A US air strike killed a militant linked to al Qaeda who masterminded truck bombings on Iraq's minority Yazidi community last month that killed more than 400 people, the military said today.

''On September 3, a coalition air strike killed the terrorist responsible for the planning and conducting of the horrific attack against the Yazidis in northern Iraq on August 14,'' military spokesman Rear Admiral Mark Fox told a news conference.

Iraq's government has put the death toll at 411 from the suicide bombings, although the Iraqi Red Crescent has said it could be more than 500. The bombings in the villages of Kahtaniya and al-Jazeera were the deadliest militant attacks in Iraq since the US-led invasion in 2003.

Fox named the mastermind as Abu Mohammed al-Aafri, who he said was an associate of Abu Ayyab al-Masri, the Egyptian leader of al Qaeda in Iraq.

Aafri was killed in an air strike southwest of the northern city of Mosul, Fox said.

''He is no longer a threat to the Iraqi people. We will continue to hunt down al Qaeda in Iraq and their operatives who conduct indiscriminate and brutal attacks against the Iraqi people,'' Fox said.

Scores of clay-built homes were levelled in the bombings, burying entire families in rubble.

The US military has previously said Sunni Islamist al Qaeda was the prime suspect in the attacks.

Al Qaeda views Yazidis, who are members of a pre-Islamic Kurdish sect, as infidels.

REUTERS PD PM1741