By Xinhua
Tikrit, Iraq : U.S. troops killed on Saturday two non-Iraqi Arab leaders of the al-Qaida in Iraq network near the restive city of Samarra, 120 km north of Baghdad, a security source said.
“The Saudi national, Abu Nooh, leader of Qaida group in Samarra and his Algerian assistant Abu Asim, were ambushed and killed by the U.S. troops early on Saturday morning in the Ragga area west of Samarra,” Mazin Younis, head of Samarra anti-Qaida Awakening Council group, told Xinhua.
However, the U.S. military did not confirm the killing of the two leaders yet.
Separately, a U.S. military statement said on Saturday that itstroops killed eight suspected al-Qaida insurgents and detained 12 others during operations near Samarra in the past two days.