The U.S. military said on Saturday it had hampered al Qaeda's ability to recruit new members in Iraq by capturing or killing many of the people who make slick videos used to attract disaffected young Muslims. U.S. military spokesman Rear Admiral Greg Smith said that in the past year, 39 al Qaeda members in Iraq responsible for producing and disseminating videos and other material to thousands of Internet Web sites had been captured or killed. "The power of this information is obvious. These guys are using material that is used on Web sites to recruit and raise money," Smith told Reuters in an interview. "We think the vast majority of this media network has been degraded at this point," he said, adding that the arrests had led to fewer Internet postings of al Qaeda beheadings, kidnappings and other attacks in Iraq.U.S. defence officials have in the past complained the military was losing the propaganda battle against militants who skilfully exploited communication tools like the Internet. Smith said there has been a steady decline in videos broadcast on 5,000 pro-al Qaeda Web sites since June 2007, roughly coinciding with falling levels of violence across Iraq. In February, U.S. intelligence monitoring of those Web sites showed 34 new postings of videos and audio material from Iraqi networks, down from 144 postings in June 2007, Smith said. "Those responsible for the more finished product, the stuff that really grabs the attention in mosques and elsewhere, we have those people on the run," he said.