This Just In....

This just flashed up on my TV, checked up and this is what I found...

DEAD!!!

Iraq's al-Qa'ida head killed May 01, 2007 THE leader of al-Qai'da in Iraq, Abu Ayyub al-Masri, was killed today in an internal fight between insurgents north of Baghdad, the Interior Ministry spokesman said. ABU AYYUB AL-MASRI The al-Qa'ida leader in Iraq, Abu Ayyub al-Masri, has been killed in an internal fight between insurgents, the Interior Ministry said. Masri, an Egyptian who is also known as Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, assumed the leadership of al-Qaeda in Iraq after Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed in June. Some facts on Masri: In June 2006 a statement signed by al-Qaeda said that the shura council of al-Qa'ida in Iraq "unanimously agreed on Sheikh Abu Hamza al-Muhajir to be a successor to Sheikh Abu Musab al-Zarqawi". The US military has described Masri as a close Zarqawi associate who trained in Afghanistan and formed al-Qa'ida's first cell in Baghdad. He had been on a previous list of 29 militants most wanted by the US military. A pro-government newspaper had published photographs of Masri on a poster. He was a thin figure with a goatee in a traditional Arab headdress in one photograph and glasses and a green jacket in the other. In late June 2006, the US put a $US5 million ($A6 million) bounty on Masri's head. In September, Al Arabiya television said Iraq's al-Qa'ida wing posted a video of its new leader reading a statement before the killing of a Turkish hostage. The pictures showed three masked men standing behind the seated hostage. Behind them was a black banner saying: "No God but Allah". An accompanying statement said the al-Qa'ida in Iraq leader was one of the three. In September a man believed to be Masri called for the kidnapping of Westerners to swap for a Muslim cleric jailed in the US and urged militants to step up their jihad, or holy war, during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. - Reuters 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 the battle happened near a bridge in the small town of al-Nibayi, north of Baghdad. Both Khalaf and the other source in the ministry said the authorities did not have Masri's body. The US military said it could not confirm the reports. "I hope that it is true, but we want to be very careful to make sure," said Lieutenant-Colonel Christopher Garver, a spokesman for the US military in Iraq. There has been increasing friction between Sunni Islamist al-Qa'ida and other Sunni Arab insurgent groups, particularly over al-Qa'ida's indiscriminate killing of civilians in Iraq. Masri, who is also known as Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, assumed the leadership of al-Qa'ida in Iraq after Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed in a US air strike in June 2006. US and Iraqi officials accuse al-Qa'ida of trying to tip Iraq into full-scale civil war between Iraq's majority Shi'ites and minority Sunni Arabs with a campaign of spectacular car bombs attacks that have killed thousands. Iraqi officials also blame al-Qa'ida for destroying a holy Shi'ite shrine in Samarra a year ago, an act that unleashed a surge in sectarian bloodletting. The US military commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, said last week that al-Qa'ida was now "probably public enemy number one" in Iraq. Masri, an Egyptian, has been described by the US military as a former close Zarqawi associate who trained in Afghanistan and formed al-Qa'ida's first cell in Baghdad. The US has a $US5 million ($A6 million) bounty on Masri's head. Reuters

Let's pray it's true...

A_C