Suspected Al Qaeda Leader in Iraq Arrested
By Waleed Ibrahim
http://uk.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUKL0818912920080508Iraqi security forces have detained a man suspected of being the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq after a captured associate led them to him sleeping in a house in the northern city of Mosul, Iraqi officials said on Friday.
The U.S. military in Baghdad said it was checking the reports that Abu Ayyab al-Masri, an Egyptian also known as Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, had been detained.
If confirmed, the arrest would be another blow for Sunni Islamist al Qaeda in Iraq, which has reeled under a wave of U.S. military operations in the past year and been forced to regroup in northern Iraq.
An Interior Ministry spokesman said an associate of Masri detained in an earlier operation took security forces late on Wednesday to where the al Qaeda leader was hiding.
After being detained, Masri confessed to being the al Qaeda in Iraq leader, he said, adding that his identity still had to be confirmed. Other Iraqi security officials said the suspect was in American custody for identification.
Al Qaeda in Iraq was headed by the Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi until he was killed in a U.S. air strike in June 2006. His successor, Masri, was Zarqawi's close associate, and has a U.S. bounty of $5 million (2.6 million pounds) on his head.
Duraid Kashmula, the governor of Nineveh province, of which Mosul is the capital, also said the detained man had confessed to being Masri.
"When police entered the house, they found him asleep," Kashmula said, adding the suspect was alone.
"These is no doubt that the person arrested is Masri. The operation was very quick and easy. There were no clashes."
U.S. officials blame al Qaeda in Iraq for most big bombings in the country, including an attack on a revered Shi'ite shrine in Samarra in February 2006 that sparked a wave of sectarian carnage that nearly tipped Iraq into all-out civil war.
But a build-up of U.S. troops last year allowed the military to focus a series of offensives against the group. The emergence of Sunni Arab tribal security units also helped to provide intelligence on al Qaeda activities.
URBAN STRONGHOLD
The result was that al Qaeda has largely been pushed out of Baghdad and its former stronghold in the western Anbar province to areas in northern Iraq, such as Mosul.
American generals say Mosul is al Qaeda in Iraq's last remaining urban stronghold in the country.
But U.S. commanders warn that the group, while significantly weakened, can still carry out large-scale attacks.
Iraq's Interior Ministry said last May that Masri had been killed, but soon afterwards al Qaeda released an audio tape purportedly from him.
And in an hour-long audio tape issued last month also said to be from him, Masri called for renewed attacks on American troops and lashed out at U.S. President George Bush.
He urged militants from the Sunni Islamist group to "celebrate" the recent announcement that the number of U.S. troops killed in Iraq had passed 4,000.
"We must celebrate this event in our special way, and make the defeated Bush join us in this celebration," he said.
He called on al Qaeda fighters to provide "a head of an American as a present to the trickster Bush" in a month-long campaign that he called the "Attack of Righteousness".
Al Qaeda in Iraq shares a name and ideology if not organisational ties with Osama bin Laden's network, which was blamed for the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.
The U.S. military says al Qaeda in Iraq is largely foreign led but that its foot soldiers are mainly Iraqis.
'Qaeda chief in Iraq' arrested: TV
By Hassan Jouini
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/afp/20080508/twl-iraq-unrest-qaeda-chief-arrest-3cd7efd.htmlA man calling himself the head of Al-Qaeda in Iraq has been arrested in the north of the country, state television reported on Thursday quoting an interior ministry spokesman.
Major General Abdul Karim Khalaf told Al-Iraqiya that the detained man claimed he was Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, who is also known as Abu Ayyub al-Masri, but that investigations were under way to verify his identity.
"He was arrested in Wad al-Hajar region of Nineveh during a raid yesterday (Wednesday)," Khalaf said. "Now we are conducting more investigations to confirm whether he is Abu Hamza."
Khalaf said the arrest came after another man close to the detained individual said the Al-Qaeda chief was in a house in Wad al-Hajar area.
"The police then raided the area and captured the man who said 'I am Abu Hamza al-Muhajir'."
Muhajir, whose real name according to the US military is Abu Ayyub al-Masri, is an Egyptian national who was made the chief of the jihadist group in Iraq after the killing of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in a US air strike in June 2006.
Last year, there had been reports that Masri had been killed, but they were later denied.
US military spokesman Major Bradford Leighton said the military was checking the latest report.
"We have no operational reports on that yet. We are checking into it," he told AFP.
The US State Department had posted a five million dollar reward for information leading to Masri's arrest.
The Al-Qaeda kingpin is a car bomb expert, and the details about his real identity -- even his name-- have been a source of debate among Iraqi and US security officials.
Al-Qaeda has said in Internet messages last year that its new leader was one Sheikh Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, rather than the more foreign-sounding Masri, whose name means "the Egyptian."
US officials, however, say the two are one and the same.
Analysts believe that Masri is one of a generation of Islamist militants who carried out attacks in Egypt throughout the 1980s and 1990s before travelling to Afghanistan and joining Al-Qaeda.
The US military believes he is an explosives expert specialising in the construction of car bombs, a key weapon of Iraq's Sunni insurgency, and that he made his way to Iraq from Afghanistan after the March 2003 invasion.
Masri and Zarqawi met in Afghanistan in 1999, according to US officials, when they were both at Al-Faruq training camp where he became an explosives expert.
Al-Qaeda in Iraq is blamed for some of the bloodiest and spectacular attacks in the country, which is still in the grip of a deadly insurgency and sectarian fighting.
In April, Muhajir announced a campaign in which the group will "offer the head of an American" as a gift to US President George W. Bush, in a speech monitored by the SITE Intelligence Group.
Al-Qaeda in Iraq has in the past said it is led by an Iraqi, Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, but US commanders say he is a "cyber invention" and that he is a straw man invented to put an Iraqi face on a terrorist group led by foreigners who infiltrated Iraq to sow chaos and undermine the US-backed government.
Abu Ayyub al Masri, al Qaeda in Iraq’s Leader, Reported Captured in Mosul
By Bill Roggio
http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2008/05/abu_ayyub_al_masri_a.phpThe Iraqi military claimed Abu Ayyub al Masri, al Qaeda in Iraq’s leader, has been captured in the northern city of Mosul in Ninewa province. The US military has not confirmed the report of al Masri’s capture. Al Masri's capture would provide a potential intelligence boon on al Qaeda's network in Iraq and its connections to the international organization.
Defense Ministry spokesman Mohammed al Askari said al Masri’s capture was “confirmed to him by the Iraqi commander of the province,” The Associated Press reported. The person believed to be al Masri has been transferred to US custody for identification, according to Askari. Iraqi troops arrested the man believed to be al Masri while he was sleeping in a safe house. Iraqi troops received intelligence from a captured operative, and the man admitted to being al Masri. The capture was also announced on Iraqiya Television, the state-run TV network, AP reported.
The Iraqi government has a history of announcing the capture of senior al Qaeda leaders, only to have to retract the statements. The Iraqi government had made several claims of wounding, killing and capturing both al Masri and Abu Omar al Baghdadi, the fictitious leader of al Qaeda’s Islamic State of Iraq, several times during 2007. The reports turned out to be false or cases of mistaken identity.
Al Qaeda in Mosul
Al Qaeda’s senior leadership is thought to be attempting to regroup in Mosul. US and Iraqi forces have killed several key al Qaeda leaders in Mosul over the past several months. Fourteen of the top 30 al Qaeda operatives who have been killed or captured in the past three months were al Qaeda leaders in Mosul, including three al Qaeda leaders from Saudi Arabia.
Al Masri also has family ties in Mosul. In September 2007, Coalition forces captured Ali Fayyad Abuyd Ali in the northern city. Fayyad, a senior adviser to the terror group's leaders, including al Masri, is the al Qaeda in Iraq leader's father in law
Al Qaeda in Iraq's last major ratline into Syria spans westward from Mosul into Tal Afar and the crossing point at Sinjar. The terror group is waging a brutal campaign to prevent the Iraqi Army and US forces from securing the province.
Background on al Masri’s rise to power and his Islamic State of Iraq
Al Masri was appointed the leader of the terror group in the summer of 2006 after US forces killed Abu Musab al Zarqawi, the infamous leader and founder of al Qaeda in Iraq. He quickly worked to undo the failures of Zarqawi, and attempted to unite the disparate Sunni insurgent groups and the Sunni tribes in the Sunni-dominated province. Zawahiri urged Zarqawi to "Iraqify the insurgency," but was ignored.
A close confidant of Ayman al Zawahiri, al Qaeda’s second in command, al Masri was a member of Egyptian Islamic Jihad, the group that folded into al Qaeda under Zawahiri’s leadership. Egyptian Islamic Jihad is a core element of al Qaeda and includes many former members of the Egyptian military.
Al Masri is officially listed as the minister of defense for the Islamic State of Iraq, according to a press release put out by the terror group in April 2007. But over the summer of 2007, it became known the Islamic State of Iraq was the invention of al Masri, who serves as the emir, or leader, of the group. Abu Omar al Baghdadi is actually a fictional character played by an Iraqi actor named Abu Abdullah al Naima. This information was revealed after the capture of Abu Muhammad al Mashadani, the former minister of information for the Islamic State of Iraq. Recently, an Iraqi police leader in Hadithah claimed Baghdadi was actually a former officer in Saddam Hussein’s army.
Al Qaeda established the Islamic State of Iraq in October of 2006 to put an Iraqi face on al Qaeda's operations in Iraq and unite the Sunni disparate elements of the insurgency. Al Qaeda claimed the Islamic State of Iraq comprises “Baghdad, Anbar, Diyala, Kirkuk, Salah al-Din, Ninawa, and ... other parts of the governorate of Babel.” The declaration of the Sunni Islamic State of Iraq followed the creation of the "Mutayibeen Coalition," which included six Anbar tribes, as well as three smaller insurgent groups. In mid-April 2007, Baghdadi named the ministers of the cabinet of the rump Islamic State of Iraq.
Update
US Says Qaeda Chief in Iraq Not Captured
by Jay Deshmukh
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080509/pl_afp/iraqunrestusqaedaThe US military denied on Friday that Al-Qaeda in Iraq chief Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, who carries a US bounty of five million dollars, had been captured by security forces.
State television Al-Iraqiya reported on Thursday that a man calling himself as Muhajir was captured by Iraqi forces in the northern province of Nineveh.
US military spokeswoman Major Peggy Kageleiry said the detained individual was not Muhajir, whose real name according to the military is Abu Ayyub al-Masri.
"They did not catch Abu Hamza al-Muhajir. Somebody with same name but not connected with him. It is not him," Kageleiry told AFP.
When asked if the military confirmed Muhajir was not in the custody of security forces, she said: "I confirm that."
Major General Abdul Karim Khalaf, spokesman for Iraq's interior ministry had told Al-Iraqiya on Thursday that the detained man claimed he was Muhajir and that investigations were under way to verify his identity.
Khalaf said he was arrested in a raid on Wednesday in the Wad Al-Hajar region of Nineveh province. The region's capital Mosul is considered the last urban bastion of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, according to the US military.
US and Iraqi forces are involved in sustained military assaults targeting Al-Qaeda militants in Nineveh.
Khalaf said the arrest came after a man close to the detained individual said the Al-Qaeda chief was in a house in Wad Al-Hajar.
"The police then raided the area and captured the man who said 'I am Abu Hamza al-Muhajir,'" Khalaf said.
Muhajir is an Egyptian national who was made the chief of the jihadist group in Iraq after a US air strike killed Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in June 2006, the US military said.
The US State Department has posted a five-million-dollar reward for information leading to Muhajir's arrest.
The details about Muhajir's real identity -- even his name -- have been a source of debate among Iraqi and US security officials. Last year, there were reports that Muhajir had been killed, but they were later denied.
In Internet messages last year Al-Qaeda gave the name of its new leader as Muhajir, rather than using the more foreign-sounding name Masri, which means "the Egyptian." US officials say the two names refer to the same man.
Analysts believe that Muhajir is one of a generation of Islamist militants who carried out attacks in Egypt throughout the 1980s and 1990s before travelling to Afghanistan and joining Al-Qaeda.
The US military believes he is an explosives expert specialising in the construction of car bombs, a key weapon of Iraq's Sunni insurgency, and that he made his way to Iraq from Afghanistan after the March 2003 invasion.
Muhajir and Zarqawi met in Afghanistan in 1999, according to US officials, when they were both at Al-Faruq training camp where he became an explosives expert.
Al-Qaeda in Iraq is blamed for some of the bloodiest and spectacular attacks in the country, which is still in the grip of a deadly insurgency and sectarian fighting.
In April, Muhajir announced a campaign in which the group will "offer the head of an American" as a gift to US President George W. Bush, in a speech monitored by the SITE Intelligence Group.
Al-Qaeda in Iraq has also in the past said it is led by an Iraqi, Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, but US commanders say he is a "cyber invention" and that he is a straw man invented to put an Iraqi face on a terrorist group led by foreigners who infiltrated Iraq to sow chaos and undermine the US-backed government.
US Military Denies Al Qaeda Leader Al Masri is in Custody
By Bill Roggio
http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2008/05/us_military_denies_a.phpLess than 24 hours after a spokesman for the Iraqi Ministry of Defense announced the capture of Abu Ayyub al Masri, the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, the US military denied al Masri has been captured. "Neither coalition forces nor Iraqi security forces detained or killed Abu Ayyub al-Masri,” Major Peggy Kageleiry, spokeswoman for Multinational Division North, told The Associated Press. “This guy had a similar name." Al Masri was reported to have been captured in Mosul.
The report of al Masri’s capture was cause by a case of mistake identity, said Mohammed al Askari, the spokesman for the Ministry of Defense. “We called the commander of Ninewa operations 10 times and every time he insisted it was Abu Hamza al-Muhajir [a pseudonym for al Masri] because when they caught him, they asked him whether his name was Abu Hamza al-Muhajir and he said yes," al-Askari told AP. The Ninewa operations commander "insisted that it was him, how can we deny him then."
This is the third time the Iraqi security forces claimed al Masri was either killed or captured since 2007. The spokesman for the Interior Ministry claimed al Masri was killed in a major clash between al Qaeda forces and the Awakening and police forces near the city of Balad. Al Masri was not captured, but Abu Abdullah al Majamaia, an aide to al Masri who also is believed to lead his security detail, was.
In May 2007, Sunni tribes reported al Masri was killed in a battle near Taji, just north of Baghdad. Iraq’s Ministry of Interior claimed its forces saw his body. Just days later, the Ministry of Interior said Abu Omar al Baghdadi. The supposed leader of the Islamic State of Iraq, was reported killed in another battle in the town of Dhuluiya in Salahadin province. US forces confirmed Muharib Abdul Latif al Jubouri, al Qaeda in Iraq's senior minister of information was killed, but neither al Masri nor Baghdadi were killed.
Al Qaeda regrouping in Mosul
The report of al Masri’s capture in Mosul highlights the importance of the northern city to al Qaeda. Al Qaeda’s senior leadership is attempting to regroup in Mosul. Al Qaeda in Iraq's last major ratline into Syria spans westward from Mosul into Tal Afar and the crossing point at Sinjar. The terror group is waging a brutal campaign to prevent the Iraqi Army and US forces from securing the province.
US and Iraqi forces have killed several key al Qaeda leaders in Mosul over the past several months. Fourteen of the top 30 al Qaeda operatives who have been killed or captured in the past three months were al Qaeda leaders in Mosul, including three al Qaeda leaders from Saudi Arabia.
Al Masri also has family ties in Mosul. In September 2007, Coalition forces captured Ali Fayyad Abuyd Ali in the northern city. Fayyad was a senior adviser to the terror group's leaders, including al Masri. He also is al Masri’s father-in-law.
Background on al Masri’s rise to power and his Islamic State of Iraq
Al Masri entered Iraq in 2002 prior to the US invasion and established what is believed to be the first terror cell inside Baghdad. He is an experienced bomb maker, and built car bombs and trained other al Qaeda operatives in the techniques.
He was appointed the leader of the terror group in the summer of 2006 after US forces killed Abu Musab al Zarqawi, the infamous leader and founder of al Qaeda in Iraq. He quickly worked to undo the failures of Zarqawi, and attempted to unite the disparate Sunni insurgent groups and the Sunni tribes in the Sunni-dominated province. Zawahiri urged Zarqawi to "Iraqify the insurgency," but was ignored.
A close confidant of Ayman al Zawahiri, al Qaeda’s second in command, al Masri was a member of Egyptian Islamic Jihad, the group that folded into al Qaeda under Zawahiri’s leadership. Egyptian Islamic Jihad is a core element of al Qaeda and includes many former members of the Egyptian military.
Al Masri is officially listed as the minister of defense for the Islamic State of Iraq, according to a press release put out by the terror group in April 2007. But over the summer of 2007, it became known the Islamic State of Iraq was the invention of al Masri, who serves as the emir, or leader, of the group. Abu Omar al Baghdadi is actually a fictional character played by an Iraqi actor named Abu Abdullah al Naima. This information was revealed after the capture of Abu Muhammad al Mashadani, the former minister of information for the Islamic State of Iraq. Recently, an Iraqi police leader in Hadithah claimed Baghdadi was actually a former officer in Saddam Hussein’s army.
Al Qaeda established the Islamic State of Iraq in October of 2006 to put an Iraqi face on al Qaeda's operations in Iraq and unite the Sunni disparate elements of the insurgency. Al Qaeda claimed the Islamic State of Iraq comprises “Baghdad, Anbar, Diyala, Kirkuk, Salahadin, Ninewa, and ... other parts of the governorate of Babel.” The declaration of the Sunni Islamic State of Iraq followed the creation of the "Mutayibeen Coalition," which included six Anbar tribes, as well as three smaller insurgent groups. In mid-April 2007, Baghdadi named the ministers of the cabinet of the rump Islamic State of Iraq.
[Salamantis] This is too damn bad. Of course, such things have happened before, a few weeks ago, the Iraqis erroneously announced that they had captured the leading Baathist remnant leader still at large, Al Douri. And there were claims that the 19 WTC terror flyers had been misidentified, simply because a few people who had the same names of some of them were found alive. But it's only a matter of time. He is quickly running out of places in Iraq to hide.
Al-Masri would have been an excellect candidate for the US's fourth terrorist mastermind waterboarding; I can only imagine the life-saving intel that a coercive interrogation of him might yield.
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