British soldiers in southern Iraq on Monday killed a leading al-Qaeda operative who escaped from a United States air base in Afghanistan more than a year ago, a military spokesperson said.
Major Charlie Burbridge said Omar al-Farouk was shot in the early hours of the morning after he opened fire as about 250 British troops raided the house where he was hiding in the southern city of Basra.
Farouk has been accused of leading the al-Qaeda Islamist network in south-east Asia. He was arrested by Indonesian authorities in 2002 but escaped last year from a US detention facility at Bagram air base, outside Kabul. — AFP
