UPDATE: NBC is reporting that he was taken into custody by the Allied Forces!
Al-Arabiya is also reporting this breaking news.
Update 2: (Friday AM) Pajamas Media has the latest.
After a career in training terrorists in Iraq starting back in 2001 and leading the Iraqi Al Qaeda killers since the death of al-Zarqawi in June 2006…
Abu Ayyub al-Masri finds himself wounded and on the run.
Abu al Masri, the current leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq, organized terror camps in southern Iraq after he fled Afghanistan when the Taliban government fell in 2001.
CNN is reporting this breaking news:
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) — The leader of al Qaeda in Iraq has been wounded and his top aide killed in a clash with police, an Iraqi Interior Ministry spokesman told CNN Thursday.
The spokesman said Iraqi police encountered an insurgent group on the road between Falluja and Samarra and, in a firefight, wounded Abu Ayyub al-Masri.
Abu Abdullah al-Majamiai, al-Masri’s top aide, was killed, he said.
The spokesman said Iraqi police have the body of al-Majamiai and would not comment on the whereabouts of al-Masri.
The U.S. military had no comment on the report.
Al-Masri, also known as Abu Hamza al-Muhajer, is an Egyptian who took over the leadership of al Qaeda in Iraq in June after the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
Last week… The AP reported this on the capture of a top Al Masri aide who had seen Al Masri just one day earlier:
The top Al-Masri aide had confessed to meeting the terror network leader the previous day in the Mahmoudiya area, but that he could not tell investigators of his current whereabouts because he was constantly on the move.
Al Masri also got a special “shout out” in the latest Al Qaeda web magazine released last week.
HotAir is tracking the developments.
Michelle Malkin has a roundup.
Bill Roggio says proceed with caution.
