US denies claims al-Qaida in Iraq leader is dead

Staff and agencies

US forces in Iraq today denied reports that the new leader of al-Qaida in Iraq was killed in an air strike and ground assault.

Iraqi government sources claimed today that Abu Ayyub al-Masri, who took charge of the group in June, was killed yesterday along with three of his aides by US forces in Haditha after a tip-off.

The deputy interior minister said officials were doing DNA tests on a slain militant to determine if he was al-Masri.

Al-Arabiya TV also reported the death of al-Masri, but gave no further details.

However, a spokesman for the US military said it was “highly unlikely” the Egyptian national had been killed.

Lieutenant Colonel Barry Johnson said a number of al-Qaida suspects were killed in a recent raid in western Anbar province and initially “we thought there was a possibility al-Masri was among them”. “As we did further analysis, we determined that it was highly unlikely that he was killed,” Lt Col Johnson told the Associated Press.

Al-Masri, who is also known as Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, assumed the leadership of al-Qaida in Iraq after the death of the Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was killed by US air forces in June.

Al-Masri trained in Afghanistan, formed al-Qaida’s first cell in Baghdad and was an aide of Zarqawi, according to the US military.

Little else is known about al-Masri, who was heard on an audio recording posted on an Islamist website at the end of last month urging Muslims to make the holy month of Ramadan a “month of holy war”.

In the recording, the voice thought to be al-Masri’s also encouraged the kidnapping of westerners to use as bargaining tools in securing the release of al-Qaida members under detention.

He also said that more than 4,000 foreign fighters had been killed in the country since the US-led invasion in 2003.