Al Qaeda in Iraq leader killed - Ministry

Al Qaeda in Iraq leader killed - Ministry Reuters Tuesday, 1 May 2007
BAGHDAD: The leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Ayyub al-Masri, was killed on Tuesday in an internal fight between militants north of Baghdad, the Interior Ministry spokesman said.
Brigadier-General Abdul Kareem Khalaf said "we have definite intelligence reports that al Masri was killed today". Another source in the ministry also said Masri had been killed. Khalaf said Iraqi and US forces were not involved. The US military said it could not confirm the reports. There has been increasing friction between Sunni Islamist al Qaeda and other Sunni Arab insurgent groups in Iraq, particularly over al Qaeda's indiscriminate killing of civilians. Masri, an Egyptian, assumed the leadership of al Qaeda in Iraq after Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed in a US air strike in June 2006. Iraqi officials have blamed al Qaeda in Iraq for destroying a holy Shi'ite shrine in Samarra a year ago, an act that unleashed a surge in sectarian bloodletting that has driven Iraq closer to all-out civil war. The US military has described Masri, also known as Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, as a close Zarqawi associate. Washington has a $US5 ($NZ6.83) million bounty on Masri's head,

Iraq Probes Reports of Al-Masri's Death ; Associated Press 05.01.07, 6:35 AM ET

Iraqi officials have received reports that the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq was killed by Sunni tribesmen, but the chief government spokesman said Tuesday the information has not been confirmed. The statement by spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh followed a welter of reports from other Iraqi officials that Abu Ayyub al-Masri had been killed. Iraqi officials have released similar reports in the past, only to acknowledge later they were inaccurate. U.S. officials said they could not confirm the reported death. Al-Dabbagh told Al-Arabiya that word of al-Masri's purported death was based on "intelligence information," adding that "DNA tests should be done and we have to bring someone to identify the body." But he refused to say unequivocally whether Iraqi security forces have the body, citing security restrictions. Accounts were vague about when and where al-Masri supposedly died. "We will make an official announcement when we confirm that this person is Abu Ayyub al-Masri," he said. "The Iraqi government will work to identify him." U.S. spokesman Lt. Col. Christopher Garver said the U.S. command was looking into the reports. "Obviously I hope it's true," Garver said, pointing out that previous Iraqi claims had proven false. "We want to be very careful before we confirm or deny anything like that." Tribesmen in the western Anbar province have been fighting al-Qaida for weeks and claim to have killed dozens of them. Al-Masri, an Egyptian militant also known as Abu Hamza al-Muhajer, took over leadership of the terror network and was endorsed by Osama bin Laden after Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed last June in a U.S. airstrike in Diyala province.