WASHINGTON, June 9 (UPI) -- The U.S. military believes Abu Ayyub al-Masri, an Egyptian believed to be in Baghdad, is next in command of Al-Qaida in Iraq, a top official said.
Al-Masri is known to have been in contact with Egyptian terrorist Ayman al Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden's second in command, according to Maj. Gen. William Caldwell, the U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad. He would not confirm whether al-Masri has been in contact with bin Laden himself.
"We know he had communications with Zawahiri. Anything else beyond that would be an operational channels and probably not something that we should talk about. But it's very clear that, you know, he had very close contacts with Zarqawi," Caldwell said.
While the U.S. military detained at least 25 suspected members of slain Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in a series of at least 17 raids in and around Baghdad Wednesday and Thursday, al-Masri was not among them, Caldwell said.
Caldwell said al-Masri and Zarqawi met in Afghanistan sometime in 2001 or 2002, and that al-Masri preceded Zarqawi into Iraq in 2003 and "established probably the first al Qaeda in Iraq cell here in the
Baghdad area, and that they continued a very close relationship since
that time," Caldwell said.
Al-Masri is believed to have fled Fallujah during the November 2004 battle for control of the city, according to the U.S. military. In February 2005 the military announced a $50,000 bounty on his head.
Caldwell repeated official cautions that the death of Zarqawi is unlikely to seriously diminish the insurgency in Iraq.
