Al Qaeda deputy killed

A lieutenant of al Qaeda terror boss Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has been killed by Iraqi forces in Mosul.

Mohammed Salah Sultan was "a known member of al Qaeda in Iraq" sought for his role in a July suicide bombing of a police station in Mosul in which five Iraqi police were killed, a United States statement said.

Sultan was wearing a suicide pack with explosives when he was killed.

"He was also suspected of resourcing and facilitating suicide-bomber attacks throughout the country," the statement said.