Military says al Qaeda member killed in Iraq

LONDON (Reuters) – An insurgent with ties to Osama bin
Laden and other senior al Qaeda figures was killed in a raid
last month by U.S. and Iraqi forces, the U.S. military said on
Friday.

It said in a statement that Rafid Ibrahim Fattah, a “wanted
terrorist” also known as Abu Umar al Kurdi, was killed near the
Abu Ghraib prison outside the capital Baghdad.

It added that he was most recently a leader of a cell in
Baquba, 65 km (40 miles) north of Baghdad, but had been in
Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq over the past 15 years,
forming a relationship with al Qaeda leaders in 1999.

The statement could not be confirmed independently.