[Eurotwit]

Al Masri:

Reuters:

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Ayyub al-Masri, was killed on Tuesday in an internal fight between militants north of Baghdad, the Interior Ministry spokesman said.

Brigadier-General Abdul Kareem Khalaf told Reuters "we have definite intelligence reports that al Masri was killed today".

Another source in the ministry also said Masri had been killed. Khalaf said Iraqi and U.S. forces were not involved.

The U.S. military said it could not confirm the reports.

There has been increasing friction between Sunni Islamist al Qaeda and other Sunni Arab insurgent groups in Iraq, particularly over al Qaeda's indiscriminate killing of civilians.

Masri, an Egyptian, assumed the leadership of al Qaeda in Iraq after Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed in a U.S. air strike in June 2006.

Iraqi officials have blamed al Qaeda in Iraq for destroying a holy Shi'ite shrine in Samarra a year ago, an act that unleashed a surge in sectarian bloodletting that has driven Iraq closer to all-out civil war.

The U.S. military has described Masri, also known as Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, as a close Zarqawi associate. Washington has a $5 million bounty on Masri's head.

http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSL0169719520070501

[goldstategop]

Another al-Demokrati insurgent bites the dust.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

[Cindy]

Good news, if true.

[SeaBiscuit]

For once I’m rooting for Rooters to be right!

God Bless our troops.

[dawn53]

There has been increasing friction between Sunni Islamist al Qaeda and other Sunni Arab insurgent groups in Iraq, particularly over al Qaeda's indiscriminate killing of civilians

Interesting...does this mean that the Sunni insurgents aren't killing civilians...or that they aren't killing them "indiscriminately?"

[syriacus]

Iraqi officials have blamed al Qaeda in Iraq for destroying a holy Shi'ite shrine in Samarra a year ago, an act that unleashed a surge in sectarian bloodletting that has driven Iraq closer to all-out civil war.

Bears repeating!

[DieHard the Hunter]

> The U.S. military said it could not confirm the reports.

Hopefully this story is not true. Hopefully it is cover for the “real” story: al Masri at an undisclosed CIA rendition location learning to surf the waterboard and ratting out all his mates. Thereafter, off to Gitmo for a reunion.