Leader of al-Qaida in Iraq seized in raid, official says

BAGHDAD -- The leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, Abu Ayyub al-Masri, was arrested in the northern city of Mosul, an Iraqi Defense Ministry spokesman said Thursday.

Mohammed al-Askari said the arrest of al-Masri, also known as Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, was confirmed by the province commander. There was no confirmation or comment from U.S. forces.

Interior Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Abdul-Karim Khalaf said Mosul police ''arrested one of al-Qaida's leaders at midnight and during the primary investigations he admitted that he is Abu Hamza Al-Muhajir.''

Khalaf said a source close to the al-Qaida leader informed Mosul police that al-Masri would be at a house in the city's Wadi Hajar area.

''The police raided this house and arrested him,'' Khalaf said.

If confirmed, the arrest would represent a major blow to al-Qaida in Iraq, which has been on the run for the last year since a shift in alliances by Sunni tribesmen in western Anbar province, and elsewhere, and an influx of thousands of U.S. troops.

Al-Masri, an Egyptian militant, took over al-Qaida in Iraq after Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed June 7, 2006, in a U.S. airstrike northeast of Baghdad.