An Iraqi top security official said Tuesday that four key al-Qaida leaders, who are responsible for major bombings and sectarian bloodshed in the country, have been captured in Baghdad.

Iraq's National Security Advisor Muwafaq al-Rubaie made the government announcement in a televised news conference.

Iraqi security forces backed by U.S. troops captured the four al-Qaida leaders and killed the fifth, a Jordanian who slaughtered last month two U.S. soldiers in Yousifiyah town, about 20 km south of Baghdad, al-Rubaie told the reporters.

Rubaie identified the detained four as Abu Uthman, Abu Aisha, Abu Eyhab and Mahmoud Abu Islam, all are leaders of al-Qaida's Omer Brigade.

Abu Uthman, whose real name is Mahmoud Jasim al-Samaraie, is the head of the brigade.

Abu Aisha, with real name of Sabah Ali Badran Kahdum, is a key leader responsible for financing the brigade and head of about thousand fighters in Baghdad.

Abu Eyhab, with real name of Zamil, is a military leader responsible for recruiting and arming the brigade.

Mahmoud Abu Islam, leader of several cells in south of Baghdad, is responsible for religious verdicts that usually lead to execution or assassination of rivals, Rubaie elaborated.

Rubaie revealed that another al-Qaida leader known as Abu al-Afghani, a Jordanian with real name of Diyar Esmail Mahmoud, was wounded in the arrest operation and died hours later.

"The killing and capture of those leaders is a considerable collapse for the al-Qaida organization in Iraq," said Rubaie.

On June 7, al-Qaida leader in Iraq Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed in a US air raid near Baquba, 60 km north of Baghdad.

(Xinhua News Agency July 19, 2006)