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U.S. military identifies Zarqawi's successor

But the national security adviser says the identification isn't certain.

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published June 16, 2006

BAGHDAD - The U.S. military presented the new face of al-Qaida in Iraq on Thursday, displaying a photograph of a bearded man in a traditional white Arab headdress and saying he was taking over after the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

The new leader is Abu Ayyub al-Masri, an Afghanistan-trained explosives expert with links to Osama bin Laden's top deputy, said Maj. Gen. William Caldwell.

He also is the man behind the nom de guerre made public by al-Qaida in Iraq after Zarqawi was killed last week in a U.S. airstrike, the military spokesman said.

However, U.S. national security adviser Stephen Hadley said it's not certain that Masri is Zarqawi's successor.

Caldwell said Masri was the man identified in an Internet posting by al-Qaida in Iraq that said Abu Hamza al-Muhajer was Zarqawi's successor.

The photograph, which Caldwell said the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency provided, appeared to be at least several years old.

According to the U.S. military, Masri was a founding member of al-Qaida in Iraq. After meeting the Jordanian-born Zarqawi in Afghanistan, he followed him to Iraq to help set up the terror cell in 2003.

Even before the terror leader's death, the Bush administration posted a $200,000 bounty on Masri because of his level of leadership within al-Qaida, Caldwell said.

Citing recently declassified documents, he said Masri has been a terrorist since 1982, "beginning with his involvement in the Egyptian Islamic Jihad," which was led by Ayman al-Zawahri, bin Laden's top deputy.

Yet Islamist watchers in Egypt and abroad said they had never heard of Masri - whose name means "Egyptian."

[Last modified June 16, 2006, 07:15:37]