No Proof Terror Leader Wounded, U.S. Military Says
Posted February 16, 2007 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
There’s no proof al-Qaida in Iraq leader Abu Hamza al-Muhajir was hurt in a clash this week with Iraqi forces, according to the U.S. military.
Conflicting reports emerged about what may have occurred to the terror head in Thursday’s fighting. An Interior Ministry spokesperson, Brig.-Gen. Abdul-Karim Khalaf, said early Friday that al-Muhajir, also known as Abu Ayyub al-Masri, was wounded and an aide of his killed in a confrontation near Balad.
But when asked to confirm, Khalaf wouldn’t say how his forces knew they’d targeted al-Masri. The deputy Interior Minister Maj.-Gen. Hussein Ali Kamal later also couldn’t say for sure what had happened.
A spokesperson for the U.S. military said he’d received no information that would back up the al-Masri account.
“We do not believe that he was either killed or wounded last night,” Lt.-Col. Christopher Garver said Friday.
There was more confusion about what may have happened to al-Masri’s aide, Abu-Abdullah al-Majemaai. One officer with the Iraqi army said al-Majemaai had been detained last week and was in custody south of Baghdad.
The officer also wouldn’t comment on the claims surrounding al-Masri.
