AQ In Iraq Head Dead, Killed By Red on Red?

For the third time now, though it may be three times lucky.

The leader of al Qaeda in Iraq was killed on Tuesday in a fight between insurgents north of Baghdad, the Interior Ministry spokesman said, but U.S. military officials appeared to cast doubt on the report.

Raising further question marks about the purported killing of Abu Ayyub al-Masri, Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh told Iraqiya state television:

"This does not represent an official government announcement but is only information that reached the Iraqi Interior Ministry about internal fighting between groups and within al Qaeda."

There has been growing friction between Sunni Islamist al Qaeda and other Sunni Arab insurgent groups over al Qaeda's indiscriminate killing of civilians and its imposition of an austere brand of Islam in the areas where it holds sway.

If true, Masri's killing would signal a deepening split at a time when the Shi'ite-led government is trying to woo some insurgent groups into the political process.

Interior Ministry spokesman, Brigadier-General Abdul Kareem Khalaf, told Reuters that Masri was killed in a battle near a bridge in the small town of al-Nibayi, north of Baghdad.

"We have definite intelligence reports that al Masri was killed today," he said.

Both Khalaf and another Interior Ministry source said the Iraqi authorities did not have Masri's body, but the source added that "our people had seen the body."

...

The U.S. military was checking the reports, said Lieutenant-Colonel Christopher Garver, a spokesman.

"We are in discussions with the Iraqis over how they obtained this intelligence. If we do have a body, we are going to conduct DNA tests, and that will take several days. If there is no body, that makes it harder," Garver said.

posted by Ace at 10:55 AM

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