BAGHDAD — The U.S. military said Saturday it has killed an al-Qaida in Iraq leader suspected of masterminding one of the deadliest attacks in Baghdad, as well as recent bombings and the 2006 videotaped execution of a Russian official.

American troops also killed the man's wife after a firefight as they tried to capture him Friday in the northern neighborhood of Azamiyah in Baghdad, the military said.

Mahir Ahmad Mahmud al-Zubaydi, also known as Abu Assad or Abu Rami, allegedly directed the insurgent cell believed to be responsible for nearly simultaneous car bomb and suicide attacks Thursday, according to the statement.

Iraqi police and hospital officials have said some two dozen people were killed in Thursday's attacks targeting two Shiite mosques in Baghdad. The victims were attending prayers marking Eid al-Fitr, the religious holiday that comes at the end of the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan.

Those attacks and others during the Islamic holy month have raised fears that al-Qaida in Iraq is trying to provoke Sunni-Shiite reprisal killings as U.S.-led forces begin to draw down.

Gen. Ray Odierno, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, said Shiites were "showing very much restraint" and promised to continue targeting the insurgent network.

"I think we've made some good inroads inside of the network that was doing this," he told reporters.

Al-Zubaydi was one of the most senior insurgents to be killed by U.S. forces as they seek to shore up recent security gains that have driven the level of violence to its lowest point in more than four years.

His death will be a major blow to al-Qaida in Iraq even as the group's recruiting efforts have been "severely curbed" by a decision by many Sunnis to join forces with the Americans in the fight against it, military spokesman Rear Adm. Patrick Driscoll said.

The military also blamed al-Zubaydi for several car bombings and mortar attacks in Baghdad's main Shiite district of Sadr City in 2006 and 2007, including a series of blasts that killed more than 200 people on Nov. 23, 2006.

Al-Zubaydi also was believed to have planned and participated in abductions and videotaped executions, including one in which he was seen shooting one of four kidnapped Russians.

The statement said the information about al-Zubaydi came from detained insurgents.

On Friday, U.S. troops came under fire after surrounded a building that was said to be housing al-Zubaydi in Azamiyah, a mainly Sunni neighborhood in northern Baghdad.

"Acting in self-defense, coalition forces returned fire, killing Abu Rami and a female," the statement said. Tech. Sgt. Chris Stagner, another U.S. military spokesman, said the woman was al-Zubaydi's wife and was not a suspect.

The American troops then evacuated several children from the house before destroying ordnance inside in a controlled detonation.