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The U.S. government has quietly withdrawn a $5 million reward it was offering for the killing or capture of Abu Ayyub al-Masri, named by Pentagon officials as the leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq.

Qari Hussain Mehsud from Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan accepts the responsibility of recent Attack on USA with Great Pride and Utmost Bravery http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxgTdkoM0Bw

...possible successors to the [Zarqawi]. One of them, Iraq-based Egyptian terrorist Abu Ayyub al-Masri, was also named by Major-General William Caldwell... The other two are an Iraqi named Abu Aseel and a Syrian named Abu al-Ghadia. Masri (reportedly... born in 1966) is believed to have entered Iraq to join Zarqawi in 2002 and founded a cell for al-Qaeda in Baghdad. ...Masri received his training at military camps in Afghanistan during the Taliban rule and met bin Laden at the Farouk Camp, where Masri was working as an instructor... is also reportedly close to Egyptian Dr Ayman al-Zawahiri... Abu Aseel and...

BAGHDAD, May 9 (Reuters) - A man seized by Iraqi forces in the northern city of Mosul is not Abu Ayyub al-Masri, the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, a senior U.S. military official said on Friday. "He has not been detained," the official told Reuters, without giving further details.

BAGHDAD — The leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Ayyub al-Masri, was arrested in the northern city of Mosul, the Iraqi Defense Ministry spokesman said Thursday. Mohammed al-Askari said the arrest of al-Masri, also known as Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, was confirmed to him by the Iraqi commander of the province. There was no immediate confirmation or comment from U.S. forces. News of the arrest was also reported by Iraqi state television.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi authorities captured a senior figure from al Qaeda on Wednesday, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry said. Major-General Abdul-Karim Khalaf said the captured man, Nazal Sabar al-Jughaify, also known as Abu al-Jarrah, was a senior lieutenant to the Sunni Arab militant group's leader in Iraq, Abu Ayyub al-Masri. Jughaify was captured in the western province of Anbar, and would be brought to Baghdad for questioning, Khalaf said. The U.S. military said it had no information on the capture.

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Iraqi security forces detained an aide to the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq in a raid early Thursday at a gas station south of Baghdad, state-run television and a security official said. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media, said the aide to Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, also known as Abu Ayyub al-Masri, was one of two men arrested in the dawn raid. The two suspects ran a gas station in Mahmoudiya, about 20 miles south of Baghdad, on behalf of al-Qaeda in Iraq, the official said, adding...

BAGHDAD, Iraq - President Jalal Talabani said Thursday that he had been assured by Democrat congressional leaders during a recent visit to Washington that they had no plans for a quick withdrawal of U.S. forces. Talabani, a Kurd whose post is ceremonial, said Democrats also backed the idea of placing U.S. troops in bases while putting Iraqis in charge of security in and around cities. “They all told me that they want the success of Iraq’s democratically elected government and continued support for the Iraqi people to defeat terrorism,” Talabani said about his trip to the United States in late...

10/03/2006 - By Michael Scheuer (from Terrorism Focus, October 3) - The past week produced messages from the new leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, who uses the name Abu Hamza al-Muhajir and may be an Egyptian by the name of Abu Ayyub al-Masri, and al-Qaeda deputy chief Ayman al-Zawahiri. While there is nothing startlingly new in either message, both provide occasions for examining al-Qaeda's ability to stay on message, to learn from and try to redress serious errors and to deploy Islamic history and tradition in support of its case for a "defensive jihad" against the United States and its...

BAGHDAD (AFP) - The Iraqi government has showed first-ever video images of Al-Qaeda's leader in Iraq, Abu Ayyub al-Masri, and said his capture was imminent. "I can say we are very close to Abu Ayyub al-Masri and we say to him your days are numbered," said Iraqi National Security Advisor Muwaffaq al-Rubaie Sunday. The insurgent training video, screened at a media conference broadcast live on state television, showed the bespectacled successor of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi describing how to make a bomb. Rubaie cited Iraqi security operations around the country for his optimism the Al-Qaeda chief will imminently be snared. He...

ASSOCIATED PRESS BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Al-Qaida in Iraq's leader, in a chilling audiotape released Thursday, called for nuclear scientists to join his group's holy war and urged insurgents to kidnap Westerners so they could be traded for a blind Egyptian sheik who is serving a life sentence in a U.S. prison. The fugitive chief of the terrorist group said experts in the fields of "chemistry, physics, electronics, media and all other sciences -- especially nuclear scientists and explosives experts" -- should join his group's jihad, or holy war, against the West. "We are in dire need of you," said the...

The new leader of al-Qaida in Iraq said that more than 4,000 foreign insurgents have been killed in Iraq since the US-led invasion in 2003. The claim was made in an audiotape posted on the Internet. The man speaking on the tape identified himself as Abu Hamza al-Muhajir - also known as Abu Ayyub al-Masri - the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, although the voice could not be independently identified. The Arabic word he used indicated he was speaking about foreigners who joined the insurgency in Iraq, and not coalition troops. It was believed to be the first major statement...

Al-Qaida's new leader in Iraq said the country's Sunni politicians were treacherous and warned of more attacks against U.S.-led forces there, according to an Internet audio tape posted on Thursday. "The fire has not and will not be put out and our swords, which have been coloured with your blood are thirsty for more of your rotting heads," said the speaker, identified in the recording as Abu Hamza al-Muhajir. "You (Sunni politicians) have lied to yourself and betrayed your nation ... You claimed you will enter the political process to ease the hardship of the Sunnis, but you were their...

It's now open & 'official', Islamists call Christians 'animals' ISLAMOFASCISM! http://www.dailybulletin.com/ci_3959579 2 US soldiers bodies found mutilated and tortured http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/06/20/soldiers.missing/index.html [Islamic website connected to Al Qaeda said:] "We announce the good news to our Islamic nation that we executed God's will and slaughtered the two crusader animals we had in captivity," said the claim, reportedly from the Mujahedeen Shura Council, a group linked to al Qaeda.

6/14/06Al-Qaeda's New Leader The U.S. military on Thursday revealed for the first time a photo of the man said to be the new leader of al Qaeda in Iraq. The military said the picture showed Egyptian-born Abu Ayyub al-Masri, believed to have taken over the terror network after the killing of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi last week.The Defense Intelligence Agency declassified the photograph on Wednesday, said U.S. military spokesman Maj. Gen. William Caldwell at a news conference in Baghdad, adding that he had no idea how the DIA got the photo. (In addition to being a senior al Qaeda in Iraq...

U.S. ID's al-Qaida in Iraq boss, launches raids Iraq also reports 'huge treasure' of data seized from al-Zarqawi hideout BAGHDAD, Iraq - The U.S. military said on Thursday it believes the real name of al-Qaida in Iraq's new leader is Abu Ayyub al-Masri. "We think that Abu Ayyub al-Masri is in fact, probably, Abu Hamza al-Muhajir. They are probably one and the same," Major General William Caldwell, the spokesman for the U.S. military in Iraq, told a news conference. Al-Qaida named Muhajir the successor to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was killed last week in a U.S. air strike. Meantime, American...

American military officials believe they have identified the man who has been chosen as Al Qaeda's new leader in Iraq — an explosives expert named Abu Ayyub al-Masri. In a televised briefing today in Baghdad, Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell IV, a spokesman for American forces in Iraq, displayed a photograph of a man he identified as Mr. Masri as "probably" being the man who was named as the successor to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian terrorist who was killed in an American bombing last week. General Caldwell said that Mr. Masri was responsible for helping foreign fighters move from...

BAGHDAD (AFP) - The US military released pictures of the man it said was the successor of slain Al-Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. US-led coalition forces spokesman Major William Caldwell said the new leader, Abu Ayyub al-Masri, alias Sheikh Abu Hamza al-Mohajer, was believed to be operating out of Baghdad.