BAGHDAD, April 19 (UPI) -- Two Iraqi al-Qaida leaders have been killed in a U.S. airstrike, U.S. and Iraqi leaders announced Monday.
The bodies of the two al-Qaida leaders were found in a ditch after the Saturday airstrike, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said. Gen. Ray Odierno, the top commander of U.S. troops in Iraq, issued a statement saying the death of Abu Ayyub al-Masri, the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, and Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, whom officials believe led al-Qaida's Iraqi affiliate, the Islamic State of Iraq, "is potentially the most significant blow to al-Qaida in Iraq since the beginning of the insurgency."