By Xinhua
Baghdad : The US military said Saturday that it has positively identified a high-level AL Qaeda leader killed during an operation near the city of Fallujah, 50 km west of Baghdad.
"Another foreign Al Qaeda terrorist has been removed from the Al Qaeda network here in Iraq," a US military statement quoted Lt. Col. Christopher Garver, a Multi National Forces spokesperson, as saying.
"This terrorist, Abu Abd al-Rahman al-Masri, was a significant figure in the network and was only one step away from Abu Ayyub al-Masri," said Garver. "Intelligence reports indicate he worked directly for Abu Ayyub al-Masri, the (Egyptian) military emir of Al Qaeda in Iraq," said the statement, adding that Abu Abd al-Rahman al-Masri, also an Egyptian, was in charge of an Islamic court run by insurgents in the town of Radwaniyah, southwest of Baghdad.
The statement added that several known associates and other detainees also positively identified Abu Abd al-Rahman al-Masri.
The Al Qaeda organisation in Iraq is presently under the command of Abu Ayyub al-Masri, also known as Abu Hamza al-Muhajir. He was a senior aide to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, former leader of the Al Qaeda network, who was killed in a US air strike on June 7, 2006.