<< Previous   of   Next >> Associated Press  (click to enlarge) Abu Ayyub al-Masri, the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, is believed to be the man in this photo released by the U.S. military.

ADVERTISEMENT

U.S. military deaths Latest identifications reported by the military of U.S. personnel killed in Iraq: Four Marines died Friday during combat in Anbar province. All were assigned to the Combat Logistics Battalion 1, Combat Logistics Regiment 1, 1st Marine Logistics Group, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Pendleton, Calif. Killed were Lance Cpl. Casey Casanova, 22, McComb, Miss.; Cpl. Miguel Guzman, 21, Norwalk, Calif.; Lance Cpl. James Kimple, 21, Carroll, Ohio; and Sgt. Glen Martinez, 31, Boulder, Colo.

CONTACT THE HERALD

Do you have a news tip?

newstips@heraldnet.com | 425.339.3400

Iraqis nab terror leader

Officials say police in Mosul captured the top leader of al-Qaida in Iraq after receiving a tip.

Associated Press

BAGHDAD -- The leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, Abu Ayyub al-Masri, was arrested in the northern city of Mosul, the Iraqi Defense Ministry spokesman said Thursday.

Mohammed al-Askari said the arrest of al-Masri, also known as Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, was confirmed to him by the Iraqi commander of the province.

The U.S. military in Baghdad said "we are currently checking with Iraqi authorities to confirm the accuracy of this information."

Interior Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Abdul-Karim Khalaf said that Mosul police "arrested one of al-Qaida's leaders at midnight and during the primary investigations he admitted that he is Abu Hamza Al-Muhajir."

The state channel, Iraqiya, said that Minister of Interior Jawad al-Bolani would reward Mosul police for the capture.

Interior Ministry spokesman Khalaf told the station that a source close to the al-Qaida leader informed Mosul police that al-Masri would be at a house in the city's Wadi Hajar area at midnight Wednesday.

"The police raided this house and arrested him. During the primary investigation, he confessed that he is Abu Hamza Al-Muhajir, the leader of Al-Qaida in Iraq. Now a broader investigation of him is being conducted," he said to Iraqiya.

If confirmed, the arrest would represent a major blow to al-Qaida in Iraq, which has been on the run for the past year following a shift in alliances by Sunni tribesmen in western Anbar province, and elsewhere, and an influx of thousands of U.S. troops.

The U.S. military considers the organization its No. 1 enemy in Iraq.

Al-Masri, an Egyptian militant, took over al-Qaida in Iraq after Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed June 7, 2006, in a U.S. airstrike northeast of Baghdad.

U.S. officials said al-Masri joined an extremist group led by al-Qaida's No. 2 official in 1982. He joined al-Qaida training camps in Afghanistan in 1999 and trained as a car bombing expert before traveling to Iraq after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.

Al-Masri fought with Muslim rebels against the Soviets in Afghanistan in the 1980s and later ran al-Qaida training camps there.