DUBAI, Sept 22: A top aide to suspected Al Qaeda operative Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi has been killed in a US attack near Baghdad, an internet site and a Jordanian newspaper reported on Wednesday.

"Abu Anas al-Shami, who heads Tawhid wal Jihad's Sharia department, was killed a week ago in an American attack on his car in Abu Ghraib," west of the capital, according to the website.

In Amman, Al-Ghad newspaper quoted the family of Jordanian-born Shami, whose real name is Omar Yussif Jumaa, as saying he had been killed in a US rocket attack on Friday and that he was considered Zarqawi's number two in Iraq.

The attack targeted Shami and other Tawhid wal Jihad members "while they were driving in farmlands" in Abu Ghraib region, the family said. -AFP