The alleged second-in-command of al-Qaeda in Iraq, killed in a firefight with coalition forces in the northern city of Mosul, was a Swedish citizen of Moroccan origin, the Iraqi Ministry of Defence said today.

The news came as the US military said that four more al-Qaeda suspects were detained in Mosul over the past 48 hours.

Abu Qaswarah, the alleged al-Qaeda No 2, was shot dead along with four other suspected insurgents on October 5 when US forces raided a building in Mosul, thought to be an al-Qaeda nerve centre.

General Mohammed al-Askari, Iraq’s Defence Ministry spokesman, said: "Abu Qaswarah is a Swede of Moroccan origin," he said.

Sweden's security police, Saepo, also said that a Swedish citizen of Moroccan descent had been killed by US forces in northern Iraq at the beginning of October. The Swedish news agency TT later named the man as Abu Qaswarah.

The US military was unable to confirm the Swedish link.

It said, however, that intelligence reports suggested that the dead man had connections with the Brandbergen mosque in Stockholm, which in the past has been connected to extremist Islamic networks.

In further operations against suspected al-Qaeda targets in Mosul, “coalition forces” captured two suspects in a raid this morning.

Another two men were picked up yesterday, including one with suspected links to one of the five people killed in the October 5 shootout.

US and Iraqi forces have been fighting al-Qaeda in Mosul for the past four years, turning parts of the once picturesque city into an ugly battleground. Local people say they are fed up with living in fear, surrounded by bullet-scarred houses. Services in the city are poor, many streets are awash with sewage and unemployment is high.

The latest problem to hit Mosul has been attacks against its minority Christian population.

At least 13 Christians have been killed in recent weeks and fear of further bloodshed has prompted 1,200 families to flee to nearby villages, convents, monasteries and even farther afield to Iraq's Kurdish region to the north or to Baghdad in the south.

Some Christians blame al-Qaeda for the violence while others speculate that Kurdish elements might be involved as part of a political ploy to coerce minority sects into supporting Kurdish parties before forthcoming provincial elections. This allegation is strongly denied by the Kurdish authorities.

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