Facts on al Qaeda leader in Iraq, Abu Ayyub al-Masri

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al Qaeda leader in Iraq, Abu Ayyub al-Masri

The Al Qaeda 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.

Here are some facts on Masri.

* In June 2006 a statement signed by al Qaeda said that the shura council of al Qaeda in Iraq "unanimously agreed on Sheikh Abu Hamza al-Muhajir to be a successor to Sheikh Abu Musab al-Zarqawi".

* The U.S. military has described Masri as a close Zarqawi associate who trained in Afghanistan and formed al Qaeda's first cell in Baghdad. He had been on a previous list of 29 militants most wanted by the U.S. 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 United States put a $5-million bounty on Masri's head.

* In September, Al Arabiya television said Iraq's al Qaeda 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 Qaeda 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 United States and urged militants to step up their jihad, or holy war, during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.