May 9, 2008

Captured Al-Qaeda chief not captured after all

Sorry about that, Chief

This is nothing. Last year around this time he was killed but not killed.

"Iraq al-Qaeda chief not captured," from the BBC, May 9 (thanks to larwyn):

The United States military in Iraq says a man detained in the northern city of Mosul is not in fact the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq.

An earlier statement from the Iraqi defence ministry said that al-Masri had been captured.

But an American military spokeswoman, Peggy Kageleiry, said Abu Ayyub al-Masri had not been arrested.

She said confusion had arisen because a man with a similar name to the al-Qaeda in Iraq leader had been detained.

Al-Qaeda in Iraq has been blamed for or has claimed responsibility for some of the bloodiest insurgent attacks in Iraq since the US-led invasion in 2003....