Topic: Web site statement says al-Qaida in Iraq leader is alive

Media: The Associated Press
Byline: OMAR SINAN
Date: 08 October 2006

CAIRO, Egypt_A statement posted Sunday on an internet Web site known as a
clearing-house for al-Qaida material denied recent speculation that the
leader of al-Qaida in Iraq is dead.

Reports that Abu Ayyub al-Masri had been killed surfaced after a raid
Tuesday that killed four militants in the western Iraqi town of Haditha.
Al-Masri is believed to have taken over al-Qaida in Iraq after Abu Musab
al-Zarqawi was killed June 7 in a U.S. airstrike.

On Thursday, the U.S. military announced it was conducting DNA tests on a
slain militant to determine if he is the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq.
However, U.S. and Iraqi officials said it did not appear that the militant
was al-Masri, which is a pseudonym for Abu Hamza al-Muhajer.

The Sunday statement signed by the Mujahedeen Shura Council _ an umbrella
organization of insurgent groups, including al-Qaida in Iraq _ said
"al-Qaida in Iraq and the rest of the brothers in the Mujahedeen Shura
Council are in their best shape."

"The group is getting stronger day after day and our Sheik Abu Hamza
al-Muhajer is in his best health, plotting for battles," the statement said.

U.S. officials said al-Masri joined an extremist group led by al-Qaida's No.
2 official Ayman al-Zawahri 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.