'Al-Qaeda's leader in Iraq killed'

The leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq has been killed in an internal fight between militants north of Baghdad, the Interior Ministry has said.

Spokesman Brigadier-General Abdul Kareem Khalaf said he had definite intelligence reports that Abu Ayyub al-Masri has been killed. Another source in the ministry also said Masri was dead.

Brig-Gen Khalaf said Iraqi and US forces were not involved. The US military said it could not confirm the reports.

Masri, an Egyptian, assumed the leadership of al-Qaeda in Iraq after Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed in a US airstrike in June 2006.

The US military has described Masri, also known as Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, as a close Zarqawi associate. Washington has a $5 million bounty (£2.5m) on Masri's head.

There has been increasing friction between Sunni Islamist al-Qaeda members and other Sunni Arab insurgent groups in Iraq, particularly over al-Qaeda's indiscriminate killing of civilians.

Iraqi officials have blamed al-Qaeda in Iraq for destroying a holy Shia shrine in Samarra a year ago, an act that unleashed a surge in sectarian violence that has driven Iraq closer to all-out civil war.

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