U.S.-led forces killed a senior al-Qaeda in Iraq operative believed responsible for the kidnappings of Westerners, including a Christian Science Monitor reporter and a slain peace worker from Virginia, a military spokesman said Thursday.The Islamic State of Iraq, an umbrella group of Sunni insurgents that includes al-Qaeda, confirmed in an Internet statement that its official spokesman, Muharib Abdul-Latif al-Jubouri, had been killed.
U.S. Maj. Gen. William Caldwell said the killing of al-Jubouri had apparently led to confused reports that al-Qaeda's top leader or the head of an umbrella group of Sunni insurgents had been killed.
Caldwell said the military had conducted numerous operations against al-Qaeda in Iraq in the last six days but does not have the bodies of Abu Omar al-Baghdadi and Abu Ayyub al-Masri and did not know "of anybody that does."
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