A U.S. soldier stands next to the picture of the dead al Qaeda leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, during a news conference at the fortified Green Zone in Baghdad June 8, 2006. [Reuters]

Iraqiya television said seven Zarqawi aides were also killed in the raid in the violent city of Baquba 65 km (40 miles) north of the capital.

The most feared leader of the Sunni Arab insurgency in Iraq, with a $25 million U.S. bounty on his head, Zarqawi has inspired an apparently endless supply of militants from across the Arab world to blow themselves up in suicide missions in Iraq.

Iraqi and U.S. officials say he has formed a loose alliance with Saddam Hussein's former agents, benefiting from their money, weapons and intelligence assets to press his campaign.

Some posters of the most wanted man in Iraq show him in glasses, looking like an accountant, others as a tough-looking man in a black skullcap.

Believed to be in his late 30s, Zarqawi remains a mysterious figure for Iraqis, who only know the carnage of his bombers.

His killing could be seen as one of the most significant developments for the United States forces and the Iraqi government it backs since the capture of former President Saddam Hussein.

Jordan's help

Jordan provided the U.S. military with information that helped in tracking down and killing al-Qaida in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian official with knowledge of the operation said.

Some of the information came from Jordan's sources inside Iraq and led the U.S. military to the area of Baqouba, the region northeast of Baghdad where Iraq's prime minister said al-Zarqawi was killed in an airstrike Wednesday night, the official said.

The official would not elaborate, but Jordan is known to have intelligence agents operating in Iraq to hunt down Islamic militants.

Jordan also analyzed a video issued by al-Zarqawi in April and helped pinpoint where it was filmed, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was addressing intelligence issues.

The video showed images of al-Zarqawi standing in a desert landscape, firing a machine gun.

The official did not give details about how discovering the location led the military to al-Zarqawi or whether the video was filmed in the same location where the Jordanian-born al-Zarqawi was killed. When the video came out, observers said the flat desert setting resembled parts of Iraq's Anbar province, to the west of Diyala province, where Baqouba is located.