The US forces killed a senior leader of al-Qaida in Iraq during an operation in south of Baghdad, the US military said on Saturday.

Abu Usama al-Tunisi, the inner leadership circle of Abu Ayyubal-Masri, the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq and was a likely successor to him, was killed in an operation on Tuesday in the Musaiyyab area, some 70 km south of Baghdad, the military said in a statement.

"Credible intelligence from several previous operations led Coalition forces to the location of a known al-Qaida in Iraq meeting and supporting aircraft attacked the time sensitive target. l-Tunisi and two other terrorists were killed during the attack," the statement said.

"Al-Tunisi 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," it said.

Al-Tunisi was involved in the planning and carrying out numerous attacks on the US troops and is believed to have operated in Yousifiyah since the second battle of Fallujah in November 2004, according to the statement.

He was Tunisian national and had been in Iraq since 2004, it added.

(Xinhua News Agency September 30, 2007)