Al Qaeda leader in Iraq ‘killed’

BAGHDAD – The leader of al Qaeda in Iraq was killed yesterday in a fight between insurgents north of Baghdad, the Interior Ministry spokesman said, but US military officials appeared to cast doubt on the report.

Raising further question marks about the purported killing of Abu Ayyub al Masri, Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh told Iraqiya state television: “This does not represent an official government announcement but is only information that reached the Iraqi Interior Ministry about internal fighting between groups and within al Qaeda.” There has been growing friction between Sunni Islamist al Qaeda and other Sunni Arab insurgent groups over al Qaeda’s indiscriminate killing of civilians and its imposition of an austere brand of Islam in the areas where it holds sway.If true, Masri’s killing would signal a deepening split at a time when the Shi’ite-led government is trying to woo some insurgent groups into the political process.Interior Ministry spokesman, Brigadier-General Abdul Kareem Khalaf, told Reuters that Masri was killed in a battle near a bridge in the small town of al-Nibayi, north of Baghdad.”We have definite intelligence reports that al Masri was killed today,” he said.Both Khalaf and another Interior Ministry source said the Iraqi authorities did not have Masri’s body, but the source added that ‘our people had seen the body’.Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih, citing security and intelligence reports, told Reuters he understood Masri had been killed on Monday.The US military was checking the reports, said Lieutenant-Colonel Christopher Garver, a spokesman.”We are in discussions with the Iraqis over how they obtained this intelligence.If we do have a body, we are going to conduct DNA tests, and that will take several days.If there is no body, that makes it harder,” Garver said.In February, Interior Ministry sources said Masri had been wounded in a gunbattle north of Baghdad, but those reports turned out not to be true.There were also reports in October that he had been killed, which again were incorrect.Masri, believed to be Egyptian and who is also known as Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, 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.Officials had hoped the demise of Zarqawi might have weakened al Qaeda, but he was quickly replaced by Masri and the group’s attacks continued unabated, pushing Iraq closer to full-scale sectarian civil war.The United States has a $5 million bounty on Masri’s head.Nampa-ReutersThere has been growing friction between Sunni Islamist al Qaeda and other Sunni Arab insurgent groups over al Qaeda’s indiscriminate killing of civilians and its imposition of an austere brand of Islam in the areas where it holds sway.If true, Masri’s killing would signal a deepening split at a time when the Shi’ite-led government is trying to woo some insurgent groups into the political process.Interior Ministry spokesman, Brigadier-General Abdul Kareem Khalaf, told Reuters that Masri was killed in a battle near a bridge in the small town of al-Nibayi, north of Baghdad.”We have definite intelligence reports that al Masri was killed today,” he said.Both Khalaf and another Interior Ministry source said the Iraqi authorities did not have Masri’s body, but the source added that ‘our people had seen the body’.Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih, citing security and intelligence reports, told Reuters he understood Masri had been killed on Monday.The US military was checking the reports, said Lieutenant-Colonel Christopher Garver, a spokesman.”We are in discussions with the Iraqis over how they obtained this intelligence.If we do have a body, we are going to conduct DNA tests, and that will take several days.If there is no body, that makes it harder,” Garver said.In February, Interior Ministry sources said Masri had been wounded in a gunbattle north of Baghdad, but those reports turned out not to be true.There were also reports in October that he had been killed, which again were incorrect.Masri, believed to be Egyptian and who is also known as Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, 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.Officials had hoped the demise of Zarqawi might have weakened al Qaeda, but he was quickly replaced by Masri and the group’s attacks continued unabated, pushing Iraq closer to full-scale sectarian civil war.The United States has a $5 million bounty on Masri’s head.Nampa-Reuters