al-Zarqawi's Successor Identified

[Tigermike 3,041]

U.S. Identifies al-Zarqawi's Successor

By KIM GAMEL

ASSOCIATED PRESS

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -

0615dv-caldwell-briefing The U.S. military said Thursday the man claiming to be the new al-Qaida in Iraq leader succeeding Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is Abu Ayyub al-Masri, an Egyptian with ties to Osama bin Laden's deputy.

U.S. military spokesman Maj. Gen. William Caldwell said al-Masri apparently is the same person that the terrorist group identified in a Web posting last week as its new leader - Abu Hamza al-Muhajer, a nom de guerre.

Al-Muhajer, Arabic for "immigrant," claimed to have succeeded al-Zarqawi, who was killed in a June 7 U.S. airstrike, and vowed to avenge him in a threatening Web statement Tuesday.

The military showed a picture of al-Masri - who was named in a most-wanted list issued in February 2005 by the U.S. command and has a $50,000 bounty on his head - wearing a traditional white Arab headdress.

"We think they are one in the same at this point. We'll continue to do further analysis," Caldwell said.

The Afghanistan-trained explosives expert is a key figure in the al-Qaida in Iraq network with responsibility for facilitating the movement of foreign fighters from Syria into Baghdad, Caldwell said.

He has been a terrorist since 1982, "beginning with his involvement in the Egyptian Islamic Jihad," which was led by bin Laden deputy Ayman al-Zawahri, Caldwell said.

Caldwell, citing recently declassified intelligence, said the military believes al-Masri first went to Afghanistan in 1999 to receive training and give Islamic lectures to other militants. Al-Masri became an explosives expert there specializing in building roadside bombs, skills he used in Fallujah and Baghdad, according to the spokesman.

Caldwell said al-Masri "originally began to work with Zarqawi in Fallujah and then later became, we think, basically the emir of southern Iraq for al-Qaida in Iraq."

The spokesman added that raids in April and May in southern Baghdad recovered material confirming his high-level involvement in the facilitation of foreign fighters.

"Al-Masri's intimate knowledge of al-Qaida in Iraq and his close relationship with (al-Zarqawi's) operations will undoubtedly help facilitate and enable them to regain some momentum if, in fact, he is the one that assumes the leadership role," Caldwell said.

He said, however, that al-Masri's ability to exert leadership over al-Qaida cells remained unclear and there were other "al-Qaida senior leadership members and Sunni terrorists" who might try to take over the operations.

Caldwell singled out Abu Abdul-Rahman al-Iraqi, who in the past had been identified as al-Qaida in Iraq's deputy leader in statements by the group, and Abdullah bin Rashid al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Mujahedeen Shura Council - five allied groups in the Sunni Arab-dominated insurgency.

Al-Masri issued a Web statement on Tuesday, vowing to avenge al-Zarqawi's death and threatening horrific attacks "in the coming days."

"Don't be overcome with joy about killing our sheik Abu Musab (al-Zarqawi), God bless his soul, because he has left lions behind him," the statement said.

President Bush, who made a surprise visit to Iraq on Tuesday, and Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki have said the new terrorist leader would join the ranks of those sought by the U.S.

"I think the successor to Zarqawi is going to be on our list to bring to justice," Bush said.

link

[Tigermike 3,041]