Baghdad – Iraqi government officials said Tuesday they believed the leader of the insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq was killed north of Baghdad, but U.S. military officials said they could not confirm the reported death.
The Iraqi ministers of defense and interior told reporters there was reliable information that Abu Ayyub al-Masri, who is believed to have taken over the group’s leadership after the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, was killed in fighting near Taji.
Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh confirmed those reports but said DNA testing would be done to verify al-Masri’s death.
“It is the beginning of the end for al-Qaeda in Iraq,” Dabbagh said on Iraqi television. He said al-Masri was killed in a clash with fighters loyal to tribal leaders in Anbar province.
But U.S. military officials said they could not confirm the reports and noted that al-Masri and other al-Qaeda in Iraq leaders have been incorrectly reported killed in the past. American soldiers are waiting for evidence to verify the identity, a process that could take several days, said Lt. Col. Christopher Garver, a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad.
If true, the death of al-Masri, also known as Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, would be an important boost for Iraqi and U.S. troops but would not signify the end of al-Qaeda in Iraq’s presence in the country. Since U.S. forces killed al-Zarqawi in June 2006, the organization has continued to inflict a campaign of killing, while pushing its repressive brand of Islam on Iraqis.
Al-Qaeda in Iraq is believed to be a decentralized organization linking largely autonomous cells of fighters. Even if al-Masri is dead, “I would not expect it in any way to bring an end to al-Qaeda’s activities in Iraq,” U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker told reporters.
Al-Masri is believed to be an Egyptian about 40 years old and an associate of Osama bin Laden’s deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri. An Internet posting attributed to the Islamic State of Iraq, the umbrella organization of insurgent groups that includes al-Qaeda in Iraq, denied al-Masri’s death and said “he is still fighting the enemies of God.”
The reports of al-Masri’s death came on a day when gunmen hijacked a minibus carrying 14 passengers in Iskandariyah, south of Baghdad, Iraqi police said. About an hour later, 11 of the passengers were found shot to death, and the other three were wounded, said Capt. Muthana Ahmad of the Babil province police.
In Baqubah, the capital of Diyala province north of Baghdad, 15 bodies were found scattered around the city, said Col. Jabbar Lazim of the Diyala provincial police. In Baghdad, 35 corpses were found during the past 24 hours, said Maj. Gen. Mahmoud Ni’ma of the Interior Ministry.
