BAGHDAD (AFP) — The US military in Iraq said on Wednesday it had identified a slain militant killed last month near the restive town of Samarra as a key fighter from the Al-Qaeda group.
Abu Abdullah, also known as Muhammad Sulayman Shunaythir al-Zubai, was killed in an operation on November 8 south of Samarra in central Iraq, the military said.
It said Abdullah was a high-level Al-Qaeda in Iraq leader for a network operating in Salaheddin province.
"Abdullah was an experienced bomb-maker and attack planner who coordinated attacks on coalition forces over the past three years," the military said in a statement.
He was also allegedly responsible for the kidnapping, extortion and murder of local Iraqis, and he is believed to have "led a group of foreign terrorists, whom he used to conduct his car-bombing campaigns."
Abdullah was killed along with an associate in Samarra.
"Intelligence indicates that Abdullah had historical ties to the battle of Fallujah in 2004, and was a close contact of the former Al-Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi," the statement said.
Zarqawi was killed in a US air strike in June 2006.
Fallujah, the former insurgent stronghold west of Baghdad, was taken back by the Americans after a fierce battle in November 2004 which virtually destroyed the city.
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