Baghdad, 5 Oct. (AKI) - A US military spokesman in Iraq has denied reports that the new leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Ayyub al-Masri, has been killed. Satellite television network Al Arabiya on Thursday quoted Iraqi security sources saying that US forces had killed al-Masri and three other suspected terrorists in an operation in Haditha, west of Baghdad. Egyptian born al-Masri, whose battle name is Abu Hamza Al Muhajir, took over the leadership of al-Qaeda in Iraq after Jordanian militant Abu Musab Al Zarqawi was killed in June.US coalition sources said that there had been an operation in which militants were killed, and that initially it was thought one of them was al-Masri. Iraqi sources said the raids on Wednesday afternoon followed a long series of clashes in the Sunni province of Diyala, in which scores of 'foreign terrorists' were killed, and the arrest of more than 200 Iraqi insurgents.
The US military authorities are believed to be waiting for the results of DNA tests on those killed in the raid.