The Iraqi Interior Ministry has announced that Al Qaida network chief
Abu Ayoub Al Masri, also known as Abu Hamza Al Mujaher, was killed on
Tuesday in an attempted coup north of
Baghdad. The ministry said it has received "strong information" that Al
Masri was dead, but would need time for confirmation.
Hours later, a Sunni Arab group claimed responsibility for killing Al
Masri. The Anbar Salvation Council, a tribal group formed to battle Al
Qaida, said Al Masri was killed along with seven of his aides. Two of the
deputies were said to have been Saudi nationals.
"Eyewitnesses confirmed his death and their corpses are still at the
scene," Anbar Salvation Council chief Abdul Sattar Al Rishawi told Iraqi
television.
The U.S. military said it could not confirm the report. Over the last
six months, the Iraqi Interior Ministry has issued several reports of the
death or capture of leading Al Qaida commanders that turned out to be
exaggerated or false.
"The clashes took place among themselves," the ministry's head of
operations, Brig. Gen. Abdul Karim Khalaf, said. "There were clashes within
the groups of Al Qaida. He was liquidated by them. Our forces had nothing to
do with it."
Khalaf said the Egyptian national who headed Al Qaida had been in a feud
with rival factions. The brigadier said he was presented with solid
intelligence regarding Al Masri's death, but would not elaborate.
"Some information, you know, needs confirmation, but this information is
very strong," Khalaf said.
"Because of misreporting about the fate of senior leaders in the past --
we seem to capture or kill Al Masri about every month -- we are going to be
doubly sure before we attempt to confirm or deny anything," U.S. military
spokesman Lt. Col. Chris Garver said.
On Wednesday, the U.S. military said Iraqi and U.S. forces detained 12
suspected Al Qaida operatives in Anbar and Baghdad. A military spokesman
said the joint force targeted senior Al Qaida agents in the western province
of Anbar and an improvised explosive device network in Baghdad.
Al Masri has been the target of a $1 million reward by the U.S. State
Department. In February 2007, Iraqi government sources said he was injured
in a battle with Iraqi soldiers. The report proved incorrect.
Al Qaida has been the leading element behind the daily mass-casualty
suicide bombings in and around Baghdad in 2007. On Tuesday, the Iraqi
government reported the death of 1,506 civilians in April, a 20 percent
decrease from March 2007.
For its part, the Islamic State of Iraq, an umbrella group that includes
Al Qaida, has denied that Al Masri was killed. The group said the report was
a fabrication meant to harm the Islamic insurgency.
