New Delhi: Al-Qaeda’s top commander in Iraq has been killed in a factional fight between militants north of Baghdad, unconfirmed reports from the Iraqi capital say.
Abu Ayyub al-Masri, an Egyptian, assumed leadership of al Qaeda in Iraq after Abu Musab al-Zarqawi died in a US airstrike last year. The US had a $5-million bounty on Masri’s head.
CNN.com reports that al-Masri died in fighting between rival militant groups. "We received intelligence reports of al-Masri getting killed in clashes between al-Qaeda in Iraq and other militant groups, at dawn today, in al-Niba'ie in Taji, north of Baghdad," Brigadier General Abdul Karim Khalaf told the website.
Khalaf said al-Masri's body has not been seen and stressed that the reported battle was an internal fight between rival militant groups.
The US military and the US Embassy had no information on the reports.
"I have no confirmation of what is being reported in the Iraqi media," said military spokesman Lt. Col. Christopher Garver.
In February, Iraq's Interior Ministry claimed Iraqi security forces wounded al-Masri in another clash north of Baghdad, but the US military cast doubt on that report. The ministry never backed away from its claim.
Comments
0 comment