Abu Omar Al-Baghdadi and Abu Ayyub Al-Masri were killed in a joint operation Sunday in what Vice President Joe Biden called a "potentially devastating blow" to Al-Qaeda in Iraq.

The intelligence that led to the elusive leaders' desert safehouse about 10 km southwest of Tikrit came from the same source -- a senior Al-Qaeda operative captured last month -- that produced the information leading to Tuesday's raid, according to a senior Iraqi military intelligence officer who supervised both operations.

Building on information provided by the captured Al-Qaeda agent, Iraqi intelligence services were able to track down all three of the men, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the clandestine nature of his job.

The intelligence officer said Al-Maliki personally oversaw the operations, and received daily briefings from him.

In Tuesday's raid, American and Iraqi joint forces launched a morning attack in the northern province of Ninevah, killing suspected insurgent leader Ahmed Al-Obeidi, Iraqi military spokesman Maj. Gen. Qassim Al-Moussawi said.

Al-Moussawi said the slain insurgent, known as Abu Suhaib, was in charge of Al-Qaeda in Iraq's operations in the provinces of Kirkuk, Salahuddin and Ninevah.

The operation that killed Al-Masri and Al-Baghdadi early Sunday was code-named "Operation Lion's Leap" by Iraqi forces, according to the intelligence officer in charge.

Pictures of the remote one-story safehouse, shown exclusively to the AP by the Iraqi military intelligence officer in an interview at his office, showed its roof caved in and its mudbrick walls partially destroyed in the aftermath of the raid.

"Al-Qaida in Iraq now is in a state of shock," the official said. "They will need a long time to regroup." US military spokesman Maj. Gen. Stephen Lanza said the bodies of Al-Masri and Al-Baghdadi were identified using DNA matching, as well as fingerprint analysis and other methods.

"We have extreme confidence that these are the two individuals," he told the AP.

Lanza said he could not comment at this time on operational details of the mission, but said it involved ground and aerial forces.

The Iraqi officer said Iraqi troops surrounded the safe house and a firefight began with those inside. Iraqi forces then radioed American helicopters, which fired missiles at the house and the shooting from inside stopped, the officer said.

Iraqi forces had been hesitant to storm the house because they had heard Al-Masri might be wearing a suicide vest, he said.

Once the shooting stopped, they went inside and found two women still alive -- one was Al-Masri's wife -- and four dead men who have been identified as Al-Masri, his assistant, Al-Baghdadi and Al-Baghdadi's son. A suicide vest was found on Al-Masri's corpse, the officer said.