Topic: Arab stations say man slain in raid may have been terror leader

Media: The Associated Press
Byline: n/a
Date: 05 October 2006

Body:


BAGHDAD, Iraq_Two Arab satellite television stations reported Thursday that
the new leader of al-Qaida in Iraq may have been killed by U.S. forces
during a raid near Haditha, but American officials said they had no
information about the reports.

Maj. Gen. Hussein Kamal, deputy Interior Minister in Iraq, told al-Arabiya
TV in a phone call from Baghdad that officials were awaiting DNA tests to
determine if a man killed in a recent raid was the new leader, Abu Ayyub
al-Masri.

"We are not sure about al-Masri. There were other people who were killed in
this U.S. military operation. We are waiting for the DNA tests to be sure of
the identity," Kamal said.

U.S. military spokesman Lt. Col. Barry Johnson said he had no immediate
information on the report.

On Sunday, Iraq's national security adviser, Mouwafak al-Rubaie, told
reporters U.S. and Iraqi forces were closing in on al-Masri.

Al-Masri, also known as Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, took over al-Qaida in Iraq
after Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed June 7 in a U.S. airstrike northeast
of Baghdad.

U.S. officials said al-Masri joined an extremist group led by al-Qaida's
No.2 official in 1982. He joined al-Qaida training camps in Afghanistan in
1999 and trained as a car bombing expert before traveling to Iraq after the
U.S.-led invasion in 2003.