WASHINGTON — Vice President Joe Biden said this afternoon the killing of the top two al-Qaida forces in Iraq is a "potentially devastating" blow to the terrorist network.

The vice president said Iraqis led the operation that killed them was based on intelligence that Iraqi security forces had gathered themselves.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki first announced the deaths of Abu Omar al-Baghdadi and Abu Ayyub al-Masri during a news conference in Baghdad and showed reporters photographs of their bloody corpses. The deaths were later confirmed by U.S. military officials.

U.S. and Iraqi forces killed the two al-Qaida figures in a nighttime rocket attack.

Biden gave his statement to reporters in the White House briefing room.