BAGHDAD — Iraqi police commandos captured the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq in a raid in the northern city of Mosul, Iraqi officials said Thursday, in what could mark a significant blow to the Sunni insurgency in its last urban stronghold.
However, the U.S. military said today that there were “no operational reports” to confirm the capture as stated by Iraqi officials, adding that the capture of another insurgent might have caused confusion.
Iraqi Defense Ministry spokesman Mohammed al-Askari said the arrest of Abu Ayyub al-Masri — also known as Abu Hamza al-Muhajir — was reported by the Iraqi commander in Mosul, where insurgents have sought to establish a foothold after being widely uprooted from Baghdad and surrounding areas last year.
Al-Masri’s capture would carry major symbolic value for Iraqi commanders, who have led operations in the Mosul area and have sought to counter worries that Iraqi forces lack the training and discipline to wage a head-on fight against insurgents.
But it’s unclear how much the reported loss of al-Masri would disrupt al-Qaeda in Iraq or its long-term ability to wage suicide attacks and other strikes. Al-Masri took over al-Qaeda in Iraq after its leader, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, was killed June 7, 2006, in a U.S. airstrike northeast of Baghdad. The pace of insurgent attacks remained strong as al-Masri took charge.
There have been false alarms in the past about al-Masri. At least twice — in 2006 and May 2007 — reports circulated that he was dead, but they were later proved wrong.
Any direct links are murky between al-Masri’s insurgents and the terrorist network of Osama bin Laden. But al-Masri has followed a path that brought him in contact with some of bin Laden’s top lieutenants.
U.S. officials said al-Masri — whose name means “The Egyptian” in Arabic — joined al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan in the late 1990s and trained as a car-bombing expert before traveling to Iraq after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.
The U.S. military also described al-Masri as a previous member of the extremist Islamic Jihad in Egypt and a protege of Ayman al-Zawahri, who became bin Laden’s No. 2 after the group joined with al-Qaeda in 1998.
The Islamic State of Iraq, an umbrella organization that includes al-Qaeda in Iraq, last year announced an “Islamic Cabinet” for Iraq and named al-Masri as “minister of war.” The U.S. military had put up a $5 million bounty for al-Masri.
The reported arrest of al-Masri also turned attention back to the Sunni insurgency after weeks of battles with Shiite militias.
In Baghdad, government envoys set strict demands for Shiite militias to end their battles against U.S.-led forces in Baghdad. But it was unlikely that militiamen would abide by the government conditions to lay down their arms.
The government outreach to representatives of anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr — who controls the powerful Mahdi Army militia — underscored the worries about mounting humanitarian and political crises for Iraq’s leadership if the fighting spreads.
In Basra, several rockets hit what the U.S. military described as a “contingency operating base,” killing at least two civilian contractors and wounding four soldiers. The statement did not provide the nationalities. Helicopters and a drone fired back, killing six extremists. It was the first such attack causing casualties in Basra since March 27, the military said.
