Al-Qaeda Iraq Leader Dead?

Security experts say he became a terrorist in 1982 when he joined Ayman al-Zawahiri's Egyptian Islamic Jihad. He probably entered Iraq in 2002, before al-Zarqawi, and may have helped establish the first al-Qaida cell in the Baghdad area.


He had manufactured explosives in Iraq, particularly car and truck bombs, helped foreign fighters move from Syria to Baghdad, and overseen al-Qaida's activities in southern Iraq.


Shortly following al-Zarqawi's death, militant websites identified Abu Hamza al-Muhajir as his successor in Iraq. US military officials said they believed he and al-Masri were one and the same.


Reports of al-Masri's death came amid increasing friction between Sunni al-Qaida militants and other Sunni Arab insurgent groups in Iraq, particularly over al-Qaida's policy of targeting civilians through suicide bombings at mosques and markets.


Iraqi officials have blamed al-Qaida in Iraq for destroying a holy Shia shrine in Samarra a year ago, an act that triggered reprisal killings from Shia death squads and ethnic cleansing in Baghdad.

"The Islamic State in
Iraq assures the Islamic nation about the safety of Sheikh Abu Hamza
al-Muhajer, may God save him, and that he is still fighting the
enemies," said the al-Qaida-linked group in a statement posted on a Web
site used by militants.