From the Miami Herald:
BAGHDAD, Iraq – One of Saudi Arabia’s most-wanted suspected terrorists was killed by a U.S. airstrike in northwestern Iraq, the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq said, and two car bombs outside Shiite mosques in central Baghdad killed 15 and wounded 28 Thursday, police said.
The latest violence followed a series of car bombs late Wednesday, including four that exploded within minutes of one another. At least 23 people were killed in western Baghdad’s Shula neighborhood and a nearby suburb.
The Web statement said Abdullah Mohammed Rashid al-Roshoud was killed in fighting near Qaim, on the border with Syria. It was signed by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the most notorious terrorist leader in Iraq.
The statement did not say when al-Roshoud was killed, but U.S. forces have launched a series of offensives near Qaim in past weeks against militants coming across the border.
Al-Roshoud slipped into Iraq in April, according to the posting, the authenticity of which could not be confirmed.
The Saudi militant and a group of mujahedeen “killed some of the Crusaders until the enemies of God had to withdraw.”
“When the Crusaders could not enter the area, the only thing they could do was bombard the mujahedeen with warplanes,” it said. “Our sheik (al-Roshoud) got what he wished” – martyrdom.
Al-Roshoud had been No. 24 on a list of the 26 most-wanted terrorist leaders put out by Saudi Arabia two years ago and was one of only three militants on the list still at large. He was one of the main theologians for al-Qaida’s network in Saudi Arabia, calling for a holy war against the Saudi royal family and Western interests in the Persian Gulf…