Major al qaeda leader assumes room temperature

U.S.: Major al-Qaeda figure killed in precision strike BAGHDAD (AP) — The most wanted al-Qaeda in Iraq figure south of Baghdad was killed last weekend by a precision-guided artillery round, the U.S. military said Tuesday. Abu Jurah, an al-Qaeda cell leader, died Saturday in the Arab Jabour area just south of the city after U.S. troops received word that he and 14 others were meeting at a house there, a U.S. statement said. About an hour later, the 1st Battalion, 9th Field Artillery Regiment fired two Excalibur precision-guided shells at the house, destroying it. An unmanned aerial vehicle saw people leaving the rubble and loading the injured into a vehicle. An AH-64 Apache helicopter attacked the vehicle and destroyed it, the statement said. Three people were seen fleeing into a second house, which was destroyed by a U.S. Air Force F-16 jet that dropped two 500-pound guided bombs on it.