The leader of al Qaeda in Iraq was captured in the northern city of Mosul, Iraqi officials said. The US military officials were surprised about the report of Abu Ayyub al-Masri's capture.

US military officials surprised - 09 / 05 / 2008 00:57

Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, has been arrested in Iraq, according to the country's defence ministry.

The arrest occurred in the northern city of Mosul and was reported on al-Arabiya TV and Iraqi state television late on Thursday.

Al-Muhajir, also known as Abu Ayyub al-Masri, was detained in a joint Iraqi-US operation. He was caught in the Tayran area in central Mosul, 360km northwest of Baghdad, reportedly after police received a tip off of his location.

 The US military did not immediately confirm the arrest.

He is the successor to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian who was killed by a US air attack in 2006.

The pair were close associates and al-Muhajir had a US bounty of $5m on his head.

Al-Masri joined an extremist group led by al-Zarqawi in 1982 according to US officials. He then graduated to al-Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan in 1999 before travelling to Iraq after the US-led invasion in 2003.