Caldwell said al-Baghdadi’s death could not be confirmed. “If that person even exists, again, we have nobody in our possession or know of anybody that does, alive or dead, that is going through any kind of testing or analysis at this point with respect to those two individuals,” he said.
On Tuesday, officials reported that al-Masri, the head of al-Qaida in Iraq, had been killed by rivals north of Baghdad, but the body had not been recovered. Regarding al-Masri, Caldwell said “we in fact do not have in our possession nor do we know of anybody that has anybody or person at this time that we think is him.” “His overall status whether he is dead or alive is actually unknown to us at this point,” he added.