Baghdad ? The Sunni insurgent group al-Qaida in Iraq acknowledged in a statement released over the weekend that its two leaders were recently slain in a U.S. airstrike in northern Iraq, confirming reports by Iraqi and U.S. officials.

The statement said Abu Ayyub al-Masri, the Egyptian-born leader of the group, and Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, his Iraqi counterpart, were holding a meeting when a team of Iraqi and U.S. Special Forces soldiers descended on their safe house on the outskirts of Tikrit in the early hours of April 18. The airstrike was ordered when the approaching troops came under fire.