We’ve been through this before, but there seems to be a bit more caution this time from the Iraqi government claiming the leader of Al Qaida in Iraq, Abu Ayyub al-Masri (Abu Hamza al-Muhajer), was killed by a Sunni militia in northern Baghdad. Caution is a strange word when it comes to the Iraqi government, and there are officials who are claiming they are “100 percent sure” and “doubly sure” al-Masri was killed, however there isn’t a parade planned yet so that’s a step towards the more cautious side.

The Islamic State of Iraq, the umbrella group of which Al Qaida in Iraq is a part of, states al-Masri was not killed and is alive and well.

It seems that the Shi’ite Al-Maliki government must [now] resort to spreading lies in the media… in order to cover up its failure to stop the blows of the jihad fighters… This government has announced that the apparatuses of apostates and collaborators have wounded the jihad fighter Sheikh Abu Hamza Al-Muhajir and killed his aide [in a location] north of Baghdad… [But the fact is that] Sheikh Abu Hamza Al-Muhajir is still wandering [free] in the Islamic State of Iraq, and fighting the enemies of Allah under the banner of Commander of the Believers Abu Omar Al-Baghdadi and [as a soldier in] the army of the Islamic State…

“These false reports by the [Iraqi] government – which have been denied even by its American masters – reflect its bankruptcy and frustration…

“Know that the army of the Islamic State is not [based on] one man but on many men – some who have already departed from this world and others who are still awaiting [death]…”

But in Anbar Province, local Sunni sheikhs are getting fed up with Al Qaida in Iraq targeting civilians rather than Coalition forces or the Iraqi government. Yes, apparently it has taken four years before they get upset at the daily or nearly daily slaughter carried out by Al Qaida in Iraq. Strangely, under the tutelage of al-Masri Al Qaida in Iraq attacks against civilians have actually gone done compared to those carried out by the now-deceased Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. This would seem to reflect positive signs towards the Iraqi government rather than increased frustration at Al Qaida in Iraq’s tactics.

Al-Masri, an Egyptian, assumed the leadership of al-Qaida in Iraq after the Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed in a US air strike in June 2006. The US government in 2005 set a $50,000 reward for al-Masri’s capture, later raising it to $5m.

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. (source)

The U.S. military has not confirmed the death, which will likely be either confirmed or denied following a DNA test. But it is remarkable only in the sense that neither the U.S. military or the Iraqi military had a hand in the ambush that ended up allegedly killing the terror chief.

Al-Masri’s alleged death comes on the heels of Al Qaida in Iraq waging a jihad against Iraqi women eating bananas  and cucumbers and sitting in chairs.  So there are more important issues for the Islamic State of Iraq to worry about.