Abu Ayyub al-Masri took over leadership of the terror network and was endorsed by Osama bin Laden after Al-Zarqawi was killed in US airstrike.
By JERUSALEM POST STAFFAbu Ayyub al-Masri 88(photo credit: )
Iraqi officials have received reports that the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq was killed by Sunni tribesmen but the information has not been confirmed, the chief government spokesman said Tuesday.
The statement by spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh followed a welter of reports from other Iraqi officials that Abu Ayyub al-Masri had been killed. Iraqi officials have rushed out similar reports in the past, only to acknowledge later they were inaccurate.
US officials said they could not confirm the reported death.
Al-Dabbagh told Al-Arabiya that word of al-Masri's purported death was based on "intelligence information," adding tnat "DNA tests should be done and we have to bring someone to identify the body."
But he refused to say unequivocally whether Iraqi security forces have the body, citing security restrictions. Accounts were vague about when and where al-Masri supposedly died.
"We will make an official announcement when we confirm that this person is Abu Ayyub al-Masri. The Iraqi government will work to identify him," he said.
US spokesman Lt. Col. Christopher Garver said the US command was looking into the reports.
"Obviously I hope it's true," Garver said, pointing out that previous Iraqi claims had proven false. "We want to be very careful before we confirm or deny anything like that."
Tribesmen in the western Anbar province have been fighting al-Qaida for weeks and claim to have killed dozens of them.
Al-Masri, an Egyptian militant also known as Abu Hamza al-Muhajer, took over leadership of the terror network and was endorsed by Osama bin Laden after Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed last June in a US airstrike in Diyala province.
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