These guys have been reported dead more times than I can remember. They’re major fish, the top two leaders of al-Qaeda in Iraq, and their deaths would deliver a significant blow against the terror group. So there have been plenty of false reports about their deaths.

But this time it’s real. MNF-Iraq confirms that they’re actually room temperature. Deader than dead.

Two leaders of the Sunni insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq have been killed in an airstrike carried out by American troops, Iraqi and U.S. officials announced Monday.

The deaths of Abu Ayyub al-Masri, as the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq is known, and Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, the alias of the head of an umbrella group that includes al-Qaeda in Iraq, should disrupt insurgent attacks inside the country, officials said. Their slayings could also provide Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki with a decisive political boost at a critical time…

The Saturday night raid was carried out a few miles southwest of Tikrit, Saddam Hussein’s home town, U.S. officials said, after a series of Iraqi-led operations led to a safe house used by the insurgent leaders. An American soldier was killed during the operation when a helicopter crashed.

Masri and Baghdadi were killed after “engaging the security team,” the U.S. military said. Maliki said their bodies were found in a ditch. “We have found a lot of documents and hand-written letters” that implicated the men, the prime minister added.

Hey, remember when the left, in the midst of its advocating for cutting-and-running from Iraq, insisted that al-Qaeda in Iraq was an unconnected franchise having nothing to do with Osama Bin Laden? Yeah….evidently we found multiple communications from OBL amongst their documents. They were well-connected.

Were. Key word there.