BAGHDAD (AFP) - The US military said on Wednesday it had seized a list of some 500 Al-Qaeda members recruited to fight in Iraq from the Middle East and Europe during a raid in northwest Iraq that killed eight militants.

Major General Kevin Bergner said the September 11 raid near Sinjar targetted a senior Al-Qaeda in Iraq leader, known as Muthanna, who was killed along with seven colleagues.

“Muthanna was the emir of Iraq and Syrian border area and he was a key facilitator of the movement of foreign terrorists once they crossed into Iraq from Syria,” Bergner told a news conference in Baghdad.

“He worked closely with Syrian-based Al-Qaeda foreign terrorist facilitators,” he added.

“During the operation, we captured multiple documents and electronic files that gave an insight into Al-Qaeda’s foreign terrorist operations not only in Iraq but throughout the region,” he said.

The files revealed “a list of some 500 foreign terrorists being recruited by Al-Qaeda, biographies on 143 foreign terrorists en route to Iraq or who have already arrived, including personal data, photographs, recruiters’ names, route and date of entry into Iraq.”