False Alarm: Not Al-Masri

Fri, May 9, 2008 at 11:34:21 am PDT

I wrote yesterday that it wasn’t confirmed, and today the military announced that it was indeed a false alarm: US says Qaeda chief in Iraq not captured.

BAGHDAD (AFP) - The US military denied on Friday that Al-Qaeda in Iraq chief Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, who carries a US bounty of five million dollars, had been captured by security forces.

State television Al-Iraqiya reported on Thursday that a man calling himself as Muhajir was captured by Iraqi forces in the northern province of Nineveh.

US military spokeswoman Major Peggy Kageleiry said the detained individual was not Muhajir, whose real name according to the military is Abu Ayyub al-Masri. “They did not catch Abu Hamza al-Muhajir. Somebody with same name but not connected with him. It is not him,” Kageleiry told AFP.