By Multi-National Force-Iraq

BAGHDAD, Sept. 27, 2006 — British forces in Iraq say they have killed a leading al-Qaida terrorist who escaped from a U.S. prison in Afghanistan last year.

UK military spokesman Maj. Charlie Burbridge said al-Farouq, whom he called a "very, very significant man," had been tracked across Iraq to the southern city of Basra, according to a report by the BBC.

Burbridge said about 200 troops surrounded a home in the city after careful surveillance. Al-Farouq was killed after a gun battle erupted.

The spokesman said there was apparently no one else in the building and there were no further casualties.

The BBC noted al-Farouq was born to Iraqi parents in Kuwait in 1971, and is believed to have joined al-Qaida in the early 1990s, training in Afghanistan.

The report said he became one of Osama bin Laden's top lieutenants in south-east Asia and is believed to have been planning bomb attacks on US embassies there when he was arrested in 2002.

According to a report in the Guardian, a police officer in Basra said al-Farouq entered Iraq three months ago under the name Mahmoud Ahmed and was known to be a bomb-making expert.

"We had information that a terrorist of considerable significance was hiding in Basra. As a result of that information we conducted an operation in an attempt to arrest him," Burbridge said, according to the Guardian.

"During the attempted arrest, Omar Farouq was killed, which is regrettable because we wanted to arrest him."