Top al-Qaida operative in Iraq killed

BAGHDAD, Sept. 28 (UPI) -- U.S. military officials Friday said a top al-Qaida terrorist cell leader in Iraq was killed this week by coalition forces.

Characterizing him as a "senior foreign al-Qaida terrorist," U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Joseph Anderson, chief of staff of the multinational forces in Iraq, spoke during a press briefing on the death of Abu Usama al-Tunisi, whom the general called "a close associate and part of the inner circle of close advisers to Abu Ayyub al-Masri ... the overall leader of al-Qaida in Iraq."

He said Tunisi, Masri's likely successor, "was one of the most senior leaders within al-Qaida in Iraq. ... His death is a key loss to the al-Qaida foreign leadership."

Tunisi was killed in an airstrike in the Musayyib region after coalition forces received information he and other al-Qaida leaders were meeting there.