Officials said Al Masri and Al Baghdadi were killed on late April 18
during a joint Iraqi-U.S. operation near Tikrit. During the operation, a
U.S. Army UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter crashed and a soldier was killed.
"During the operations, computers were seized with e-mails and messages
to the two biggest terrorists, Osama Bin Laden and Ayman Al Zawahiri," Al
Maliki said.
Photographs of the bodies of Al Masri and Al Baghdadi were displayed at
a news conference on April 19. Unlike previous Iraqi claims of the killing
of AQI leaders, the U.S. military confirmed the deaths of Al Masri and Al Baghdadi, said to have undergone
forensic examination.
"The death of these two terrorists is a potentially devastating blow to
AQI," the U.S. military said.
In 2006, Al Masri, an Egyptian national also known as Abu Hamza Al
Muhajer, was appointed commander of AQI after the U.S. assassination of
his predecessor, Abu Mussib Al Zarqawi. Al Masri, whose real name was Abdul
Munim Al Badawi, was regarded as a low-key figure who shifted Al Qaida
targets from the Shi'ite community to the Iraqi security forces. Islamic
sources in Egypt said they have never been able to identify Al Masri.
"The death of these terrorists is potentially the most significant blow
to Al Qaida in Iraq since the beginning of the insurgency," U.S. commander
in Iraq, Gen. Raymond Odierno, said.
Al Baghdadi was regarded as a key ally of Al Masri. Al Baghdadi, whose
real name was Humid Al Zawi, led the Al Qaida-linked Islamic State of Iraq
and was reported several times to have been killed in 2008 and 2009. At one
point, the U.S. military had determined that Al Baghdadi was a fictitous
figure.
"A series of Iraqi-led joint operations conducted over the last week
resulted in the Iraqi forces, with U.S. support, executing a nighttime raid
on the AQI leaders' safe house," the U.S. military said. "The joint
security team identified both AQI members, and the terrorists were killed
after engaging the security team. Additionally, Masri's assistant, along
with the son of Al Baghdadi, who were also involved in terrorist activities,
were killed."
Officials said Al Masri and Al Baghdadi were the target of a massive
search over the last two years. They said information on their whereabouts
surfaced in April 2010 as Iraqi security forces captured or killed about 35
AQI operatives in the space of less than a month.
"The government of Iraq intelligence services and security forces
supported by U.S. intelligence and special operations forces have over the
last several months continued to degrade AQI," Odierno said.
Still, both Iraq and the U.S. military were said to have concluded that
AQI remains capable of sustaining its campaign of mass-casualty suicide
bombings. Officials said AQI has succeeded in recruiting Iraqis for attacks
in the provinces of Anbar, Baghdad, Diyala and Nineveh.
"There is still work to do, but this is a significant step forward in
ridding Iraq of terrorists," Odierno said.
