BAGHDAD – One of Al Qaeda leaders in Iraq, identified as the militant group’s “war minister”, has been killed in a raid, a senior Iraqi official said on Friday. Noman Salman, also know as Al-Nasser Lideen Allah Abu Suleiman, the war minister for the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI), was killed on Thursday night in Hit, about 130 km west of Baghdad, a spokesman for the Baghdad operations command said.
“Based on intelligence, Iraqi security forces carried out the raid that killed him. US forces were not involved in this operation,” Major General Qassim al-Moussawi told Reuters. Abu Suleiman, an Iraqi, was named war minister by ISI last May after the killing of two of the group’s top leaders by Iraqi and US security forces.
News of his death came as thousands of Iraqis took to the streets on Friday to protest corruption and lack of basic services amid fears of attacks by insurgents.
