BAGHDAD [MENL] -- Iraq has reported the killing of the No. 2 figure in the Al Qaida network.

Officials said Abdullah Abu Azzam, known as the prince of the Al Anbar province, was killed over the weekend in a Baghdad apartment during a raid by Iraqi and U.S. forces. They said Abu Azzam, whose real name is Abdullah Najim Abdullah Mohammed Al Juwari, was the leading aide to Abu Mussib Al Zarqawi, head of the Al Qaida network in Iraq.

"We've taken down the number two in the network and that is going to have an impact," U.S. military spokesman Lt. Col. Steve Boylan said. "And whoever replaces him as number two, we will go after him as well."

The killing of Abu Azzam has not ended suicide strikes. On Tuesday, 10 people, most of them police recruits, were killed in a suicide bombing outside a police center in Baaquba.