Al-Qaida Chief Abu Ayyub al-Masri Reported Dead

(April 19) -- Abu Ayyub al-Masri, reported killed by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki today, was once among the most wanted terrorists in Iraq.

Al-Masri, whose name literally translates as "the Egyptian," became the likely head of al-Qaida in Iraq during 2006, according to the U.S. military, when he took over command following the high-profile killing of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian from the town of Zarqa who had established the organization after the U.S.-led invasion.

Al-Masri was also known in U.S. government records as Abu Hamza al-Muhajir -- "the immigrant," a name that may have been derived from his origins outside Iraq. In 2006 the The Washington Post reported that he was about 40 years old and that his real name may have been Yusif al-Dardiri.

Though he has faded from prominence in recent years, al-Masri was listed by the State Department in 2006 as the last remaining member of the Mujahideen Shura Council, an apparent umbrella group for al-Qaida in Iraq and other Sunni armed resistance groups. Since the 1980s, he has also been affiliated with the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, a group dedicated to the overthrow of the Egyptian government, which merged with al-Qaida about a decade ago, State Department documents show. The leader of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad was Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden's deputy.

Al-Masri attended a training camp in Afghanistan before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, a U.S. military representative announced in 2006, and was proficient in the production of explosives used in car and truck bombings. According to The Associated Press, he took part in the 2004 battle of Fallujah, and it was from there, according to military officials, that he directed the arrival of suicide bombers that came through Syria.

But Pentagon officials questioned his ability to maintain control of the al-Qaida movement inside Iraq, and these doubts meant that the bounty on his head was reduced from $5 million in 2006 to just $100,000 in May 2008.

His death has been reported before, in 2006, 2007 and 2008. The latest announcement has received preliminary confirmation by the U.S. military, and the BBC has reported that Iraqi television has shown images of his alleged corpse.