Senior Al Qaeda member, 10 killed in Iraq

BAGHDAD: A senior Al Qaeda member has been killed in Iraq as two car bombs in Mosul left at least 10 people dead, sources said.

An explosives-laden car parked near a bank in the town of Hamdaniyah, 35 km east of Mosul in Nineveh province in north Iraq, detonated when a police patrol passed by, a source said on condition of anonymity.

The blast killed four policemen, including two officers, and wounded 16, the source said. Two police vehicles were damaged in the blast.

Another explosives-laden car blasted near Iraqi Army vehicles in the al-Mazra'a village near the town of Tal Afar, 70 km west of Mosul, killing six people, including three soldiers, and wounding 17, according to an Iraqi Army source.

Mosul some 400 km north of Baghdad has long been the hot bed of insurgency against the US and Iraqi security forces. 

The US forces killed Abu Usama al-Tunisi, a senior leader of Al Qaeda during an operation in south of Baghdad, the US military said.

Al-Tunisi was from the inner leadership circle of Abu Ayyub al-Masri, the leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq and was a likely successor to him. "He was the military emir (leader) of Baghdad's southern belt and took over the role of emir of foreign terrorists when al-Masri became the overall leader."

He along with his two associates was killed in an operation on Tuesday in the Musaiyyab area, some 70 km south of Baghdad, the military said in a statement.

He was a Tunisian national and had been in Iraq since 2004.