TWO al-Qaeda members, one a cell leader accused of taking part in at least three videotaped beheadings, have been killed in Iraq, the US military said. The suspected cell leader was killed during a raid on a house in Mosul on Sunday, while the second al-Qaeda member, identified as Abu Duaa, was believed to have died in an air strike near Qaim in western Iraq overnight. "Intelligence sources indicate that Abu Duaa, who helped Syrians and Saudis enter Iraq to intimidate and kill Iraqi citizens, was in the house at the time of the strike," the military said in a statement in Baghdad. His body had not been recovered, but the air strike effectively destroyed the building, it said.The US military identified the cell leader killed in Mosul as Nashwan Mijhim Muslet and said his chief of security, Nahi Achmed Obeid Sultan, or Abu Hassan, also died in the raid by US-led forces. "Muslet, also known as Abu Tayir or Abu Zaid, was a senior operational al-Qaeda cell leader who operated specifically in the Mosul area," the military said. It said he personally assisted in the beheadings of three Mosul citizens and that a number of beheadings by his cell were filmed to intimidate Iraqi citizens.
The statement on the overnight air raid said "Duaa was linked to other al-Qaeda in Iraq and terrorists and foreign fighter facilitators in the Qaim, Karabilah and Husaybah areas". Intelligence sources indicated he was connected to intimidation, torture and murder of civilians in the Qaim area, it said. "Duaa held religious courts to try local citizens charged with supporting the Iraqi government and coalition forces. He would kidnap individuals or entire families, accuse them, pronounce sentence and then publicly execute them." The US statement said Abu Duaa's al-Qaeda connections extended to Syria and Saudi Arabia, where most of his foreign fighters were reportedly recruited.