A key leader of al Qaeda in Iraq described as the group's "religious emir" was killed in a U.S. Airstrike, the military said yesterday.
Mansour Suleiman Mansour Khalifi al-Mashhadani, or Sheik Mansour, and two foreign fighters were killed as they tried to flee in a vehicle near the town of Youssifiyah, in the so-called Sunni "Triangle of Death."
U.S. Coalition forces had been tracking al-Mashhadani for some time, American military spokesman William Caldwell said in announcing the death. He said al-Mashhadani was an Iraqi, 35 to 37 years old, and that one of the men killed with him was an al Qaeda cell leader identified as Abu Tariq.
The three men were killed just hours before a terror attack on a traffic checkpoint near Youssifiyah, by a Euphrates River canal. One U.S. Soldier was killed in the attack, and two - Pfc. Kristian Menchaca and Pfc. Thomas L. Tucker, whose mutilated bodies were recovered yesterday - were captured and killed by al Qaeda in Iraq. Caldwell said the Iraqi militant played a key religious and recruiting role in the group. The spokesman said Mansour was linked to the senior leadership, including Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was killed in a June 7 U.S. Airstrike, and Abu Ayyub al-Masri, the man the U.S. Military has identified as al-Zarqawi's replacement.
Mansour "reportedly served as a right-hand man of Zarqawi's, and also served as a liaison between al Qaeda in Iraq and the various tribes in the Youssifiyah area, as well as playing a key role in their media operations," Caldwell said.
Citing intelligence sources, Caldwell also said Mansour was responsible for the shooting down of a coalition aircraft this spring. The militant joined al Qaeda in Iraq sometime in the fall of 2004, Caldwell said.
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