Al Qaeda member 'killed in Iraq'

LONDON - An insurgent with ties to Osama bin Laden and other senior al Qaeda figures was killed in a raid last month by US and Iraqi forces, the US military said yesterday.

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.

- REUTERS