http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0705040504may04,0,5433661.storyMilitant's death spurs confusion
By Liz Sly, Tribune foreign correspondent; Nadeem Majeed contributed to this report
Published May 4, 2007
BAGHDAD -- It appears there was only one body, only one senior Al Qaeda leader killed in action this week by U.S. forces in a shootout.
But Iraqi forces twice intercepted the corpse of the dead man after it had been released for burial by the U.S. military, prompting a flurry of claims by Iraqi security forces that they had killed the organization's top leaders and illustrating the difficulty of ascertaining facts amid the confusion that often surrounds the Iraq war.
According to the U.S. military, Muharib Abdul-Latif al-Jibouri was shot dead by U.S. forces early Tuesday on a mission code-named Operation Rat Trap just west of Taiji and northwest of Baghdad shortly after 2 a.m. Tuesday.
U.S. military spokesman Army Maj. Gen. William Caldwell identified al-Jibouri as the minister of information in the Al Qaeda-proclaimed Islamic State of Iraq, which is headed by the overall head of Al Qaeda-affiliated groups in Iraq, Abu Omar al-Baghdadi.