 Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice Friday approved up to $5 million in exchange for information on Abu Ayyub al-Masri, the new face of al-Qaida in Iraq. Al-Masri is presumed to be the successor of terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was killed by an American bomb in early June. Al-Masri is an Egyptian explosives expert who trained in Osama bin Laden's camps in Afghanistan and was an associate of al-Zarqawi. Al-Masri has been fighting in Iraq since at least 2003 and was engaged in the battle of Fallujah in 2004. Rice's agency is offering the money to encourage people with information about al-Masri's location to come forward, said spokesman Adam Ereli. |