'Highly unlikely' al-Qaida leader killed, says US

Iraqi officials are doing DNA tests on a killed militant to determine if he is al-Qaida in Iraq leader Abu Ayyub al-Masri, the deputy interior minister said today.

However, the US military said it was “highly unlikely” the terror chief had been killed.

US military spokesman Lt. Col. Barry Johnson said a number of al-Qaida suspects were killed in a recent raid in western Anbar province and initially “we thought there was a possibility al-Masri was among them”.

“As we did further analysis, we determined that it was highly unlikely that he was killed,” Johnson said.

Deputy Interior Minister Maj. Gen. Hussein Kamal said the raid took place two days ago, but he and Johnson refused to give further details.

Two Arab satellite television stations reported that the militants were killed by US forces during a raid near Haditha.