(KUNA) -- American troops have killed 25 insurgents in a mop-up operations trageting hideouts of Al-Qaeda organization in central Iraq, the US Army said in a statement released on Thursday. The forces engaged the gunmen, entrenched in the region of Al-Tarmiah north of Baghdad, in ground clashes, while aircraft covered the regular forces.The troops killed 25 gunmen, detained 21 others and found arms caches in the operation, during which gunship helicopters were called in to back up the infantrymen and hit targets of the insurgents The American Army declared, on Wednesday, that a leading member of Al-Qaeda, Thaer Al-Malek, was killed in an allied raid on Al-Tarmiah, a hotbed for the outlawed organization, on November 5.