Friday, February 16, 2007
Leader of al Qaeda in Iraq wounded
Insurgency, Security
UPDATE (AP) - A spokesman said Friday the U.S. military has no indication that the al-Qaida in Iraq leader was killed or wounded in a raid, while an Iraqi army officer said his deputy has been jailed for a week.
(Reuters) The leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Ayyub al-Masri, was wounded by Iraqi security forces in a clash north of Baghdad, two Interior Ministry sources said on Friday. A ministry spokesman quoted in a report by Iraq's state-run television Iraqiya and monitored by the BBC indicated that Masri had escaped the gunbattle on Thursday after being hurt.
But the two sources who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity declined to give details on Masri's whereabouts or say how security forces knew he had been wounded. They said a Masri aide had been killed in the clash, which one source said occurred when a group of al Qaeda militants were intercepted by Iraqi police while on their way to the town of Samarra, north of Baghdad. The U.S. military in Baghdad said they were unable to confirm the reports.
But the two sources who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity declined to give details on Masri's whereabouts or say how security forces knew he had been wounded. They said a Masri aide had been killed in the clash, which one source said occurred when a group of al Qaeda militants were intercepted by Iraqi police while on their way to the town of Samarra, north of Baghdad. The U.S. military in Baghdad said they were unable to confirm the reports.
Labels: al-Masri, Al-Qaeda in Iraq
