BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- The leader of al Qaeda in Iraq was captured early Thursday in the northern city of Mosul, Iraqi officials said.

U.S. military officials were surprised about the report of Abu Ayyub al-Masri's capture -- first reported by Iraqi media and picked up by The Associated Press. And intelligence officials said they were skeptical, even though Iraqi officials said al-Masri was already in U.S. military custody.

Al-Masri ("the Egyptian"), also known as Abu Hamza al-Muhajer, took the reins of the Iraqi al Qaeda offshoot in June 2006 after a U.S. missile strike killed his predecessor, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

Since then, Iraqi officials have reported his death three times, his capture twice and a mortal wounding once. Watch more about al-Masri's role with al Qaeda in Iraq

This time, Nineveh Gov. Duraid Kashmoula and Iraqi Defense Ministry spokesman Gen. Mohammed al-Askari told CNN of al-Masri's capture during a late-night operation in Mosul, saying he had since been handed over to the U.S. military.

Kashmoula said police, acting on reliable sources, surrounded and stormed a house in Mosul's southern Wadi Hajer neighborhood, finding a man who readily identified himself as al-Masri sleeping on a thin mattress on the ground.

Iraqi security forces are 100 percent certain of the identification, he said.

Al-Askari said al-Masri was captured in a joint U.S.-Iraqi operation in Mosul, although Kashmoula said no U.S. forces were involved.

Other Iraqi officials also reported al-Masri's capture. An aide to Interior Minister Jawad al-Bolani said he was captured by Iraqi police in Mosul and that the minister on Thursday evening called the Mosul police chief to praise their work.

An Interior Ministry spokesman, Maj. Gen. Abdul Karim Khalaf, told state-run al-Iraqia TV about the capture, saying "sources close to the criminal" led them to his hideout. Khalaf said "the criminal confessed to being al-Muhajer" after a preliminary interrogation and that further interrogations were under way.

The capture is "a major blow to al Qaeda in Iraq," he said.

Iraqi media reported the news as breaking and had several officials on air to talk about the capture.

But U.S. military officials could only say on the record they had nothing to confirm the report.

"I am seeing the same reports you are and am checking into it," Col. Steve Boylan told CNN. "Have not heard any confirmation as yet. We are trying to get confirmation one way or the other."

"We do not have any operational reporting at this time that indicates that Abu Ayyub al-Masri has been captured," another military spokesman said. "We are still checking with our Iraqi counterparts to verify the exact details."

A senior federal law enforcement official told CNN that "U.S. intelligence officials have no information to confirm the report and at this point are skeptical of the reported capture."

In October 2006, four months after he assumed al-Zarqawi's role as the group's leader, al-Masri was reported killed in a U.S. raid in Haditha. Seven months after that, he was supposedly killed in a clash between rival Sunni groups near Taji.

Those reports did not pan out, nor did a report in February 2007 that he had been killed, then captured, then mortally wounded on the road between Samarra and Fallujah -- all in two days.

Iraqi officials have also misreported the deaths or capture of other high-ranking insurgents, Baathists or others, including al-Zarqawi before he was killed and Izzat Ibrahim al-Duri, the highest ranking former member of Saddam Hussein's regime still at large.

Al-Duri, who was the King of Clubs (No. 6) on the U.S. military's deck of most wanted regime officials, was most recently reported captured two weeks ago by multiple Iraqi officials. He had previously been reported killed in 2005 and captured the year before.
Iraqis report capture of al Qaeda in Iraq leader - CNN.com

Another bad guy on his way to Club Gitmo!:thumbsup:

Have a good one!:s4:
Psycho4Bud Reviewed by Psycho4Bud on . Iraqis report capture of al Qaeda in Iraq leader BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- The leader of al Qaeda in Iraq was captured early Thursday in the northern city of Mosul, Iraqi officials said. U.S. military officials were surprised about the report of Abu Ayyub al-Masri's capture -- first reported by Iraqi media and picked up by The Associated Press. And intelligence officials said they were skeptical, even though Iraqi officials said al-Masri was already in U.S. military custody. Al-Masri ("the Egyptian"), also known as Abu Hamza al-Muhajer, Rating: 5