Abu Omar al-Baghdadi and Abu Ayub al-Masri -- both linked with Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden -- died in a shootout on Sunday near Tikrit, the home town of executed dictator Saddam Hussein, according to Iraqi and US officials.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and the US military said on Monday that Baghdadi and Masri were killed in a raid on a safehouse which yielded computers filled with emails and messages to bin Laden and his deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri.

Witnesses to the joint Iraqi-US operation told AFP that helicopters circled overhead, American ground troops surrounded a house and gunfire broke out before the sound of a huge explosion rocked the area.

A woman living about one kilometre (half a mile) from the site in the desert region of Ad-Dhariya, southeast of Tikrit, was awakened by the aircraft.

"I heard the sound of planes and, after that, beams (of light) from American machine guns pointed at the house. I was scared and went back inside the house. After that I heard the sound of a huge explosion," she said.

A farmer said aircraft bombed the area, before troops dismounted from helicopters and vehicles surrounded the target.

There were no bullet shells in the immediate vicinity, said an AFP correspondent who visited the house with Iraqi forces on Tuesday.

Around 85 percent of the solid brick house, which was reinforced with metal girders and featured an underground hideout about three metres (nine feet) deep, was destroyed. The roof was caved in by an apparent airstrike and almost every wall had collapsed, he said.

A military statement released in Baghdad said Baghdadi and Masri were hunted down under a major operation codenamed "Leap of the Lion," launched on March 11.

A third Al-Qaeda operative, Ahmed al-Obeidi, also known as Abu Suheib, responsible for planning attacks in the north of the country, was killed on Tuesday in a second US-Iraqi operation, an Iraqi security official told AFP.

Defence analysts said the apparent slaying of Baghdadi and Masri showed coordination between the Iraqi and US armies was improving.

"This is a big deal. Clearly US/Iraqi intelligence was on the ball, which will send ripple effects through Al-Qaeda in Iraq," said Brian Fishman, a counter-terrorism research fellow at the New America Foundation in Washington.

"Al-Masri's death eliminates a key link to Al-Qaeda central (bin Laden), but that does not mean there are not others," added Fishman, author of "Dysfunction and Decline: Lessons Learned from Inside Al-Qaeda in Iraq."

Maliki, who displayed pictures of Baghdadi and Masri before and after their deaths, said Al-Qaeda was now "bleeding... and severely weakened," and that a major threat to the country's security had been removed.

Fishman expressed doubt, however, noting the Iraqi authorities had announced Baghdadi's capture or death on several previous occasions.

"I need to see more information about Baghdadi. There has been so much bad information released about this persona in the past that I remain a sceptic -- open to be convinced, but still a sceptic," he said.

US forces have always said Masri -- a veteran Egyptian militant named Al-Qaeda in Iraq chief in June 2006 after the death in a US air raid of his better-known Jordanian predecessor Abu Musab al-Zarqawi -- was the real power behind the group.

The US statement on Sunday's killings notably referred to Masri before it mentioned Baghdadi.

Charles Heyman, a Britain-based defence analyst, said the reported killing of the two AQI leaders suggested the Iraqi and US militaries were working better together but that a long road lay ahead before the insurgency was tamed.

"This shows that the Americans and the Iraqis are coordinating their intelligence activities, but the important thing here is that, when leaders are taken out, is there somebody there to replace them?" said Heyman.

"In many (insurgent organisations) an action like Sunday's just creates a vacancy in the hierarchy which someone can step into.

"The only way to judge the overall situation is to look at the level of violence in a country, and there is still lots of violence in Iraq," he said.

General Ray Odierno, the top US commander in Iraq, said the killings of Baghdadi and Masri followed joint actions "over the last several months" that had "continued to degrade AQI."

Iraqi defence ministry spokesman Major General Mohammed al-Askari said it now had "the complete structure of AQI and its links with all other countries."

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