As US and Iraq forces maintain the pressure on al Qaeda in Iraq's network, US forces killed a senior al Qaeda operative behind the single most deadly attack in Iraq since the start of the war. On September 3, the US Air Force killed Abu Muhammad al Afri, the emir of Sinjar in Mosul province.

Al Afri was one of al Qaeda leaders who ordered the devastating attacks against the Yazidi villages near Singar. The US military say over 334 were killed during the multiple suicide truck bombings in the remote village, but media outlets put the death toll at over 500. The bombings accounted for about 30 percent of the 1,809 Iraqi deaths over the course of August; the figure of 500 dead is used in the monthly reporting.

Al Afri "was killed during a kinetic strike in a very remote area 70 miles southwest of Mosul," Multinational Forces Iraq reported. The US Air Force bombed his location, and "close associates and detainees confirmed that al Afri was killed during the strike."