Iraq executes senior al-Qaeda militant leader

Iraq has executed a senior militant leader of the al-Qaeda-inspired Islamic State of Iraq network along with three other men over terror-related charges.

“These terrorists were executed by hanging,” AFP cited a statement released by the Iraqi Justice Ministry on Monday.

It added, “They committed criminal attacks against the Iraqi people, notably in Baghdad and in (the western province of) Anbar.”

Munaf Abdul Rahim al-Rawi, once described as the “governor of Baghdad” for the al-Qaeda’s front group in Iraq, was among the group put to death.

He was arrested in March 2010 in connection with plotting two massive attacks in Baghdad in August and October of 2009, which claimed at least 250 lives.

Al-Qaeda in Iraq is a shadowy group that was once allegedly led by Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was reportedly killed in June 2006.

According to the US government and military officials, after Zarqawi’s death, the group’s leadership fell to Ayyub al-Masri, who was killed, along with Abu Omar al-Baghdadi — another leader of the group — in a joint operation by Iraqi and US troops in Salahuddin province in April 2010.

Al-Qaeda in Iraq has been blamed for some of the deadliest attacks in the country since the US-led invasion in March 2003