both of these individuals. this counterterrorism operation is the culmination of a lot of cooperation and very hard work by iraqi and u.s. forces to degrade aqi over the past several months and years. abu masri and omar al babhdadi were killed in the night time raid. al masri was the leader of al qaeda in iraq. bob, first let s get some perspective on how big a deal it is that these two men especially the leader of al qaeda in iraq were killed. this is a big deal. these are people the u.s. has been trying to kill for years. in fact there were reports in both of those cases that they had been killed, reports that had to be pulled back. that s why you may have seen today prime minister malaki displaying pictures of their bodies to prove they were dead. these are the people who took over from al zawkari in 2006.
agreed to create these kind of caution zones where planes will be able to fly through, so by tomorrow we should see some passengers finally making their way home. nbc s dawna friesen live in our london bureau. thank you. while the impact to air travel is devastating the situation on the ground isn t much better. the plume of ash and smoke billoed 30,000 feet into the air and the ash is blanketing miles of countryside causing problems for people and their live stock. some people are evacuating. but farmers are staying behind to try and rescue some of the animals. nbc s chief science correspondent bob bazell joins us live from iceland. tell us about the conditions on the ground. reporter: it s a beautiful, cold day here. i can start with that. behind me you can see the volcano. yesterday that plume was 30,000 feet high. today it s close to the 8,000 feet high. and scientists don t know if this is the beginning of the end of the eruption or if it s a brief interlude and a ma