Death of al-Qaida in Iraq leader still not confirmed

Iraqi officials have received reports that the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq has been killed north of Baghdad but the information has not been confirmed, the chief government spokesman said today.

The statement by spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh followed a welter of reports from other Iraqi officials that Abu Ayyub al-Masri had been killed – either by rivals in al-Qaida or Sunni tribesmen who had turned against the extremists.