Al Baghdadi *Not* dead, Waiting on Confirmation for Al Masri Death

Everyone is treading lightly on the reports of Al Masri’s death, but it appears that Iraqi Television is stating that Al Baghdadi is dead.

Everyone is treading lightly on the reports of Al Masri’s death, but it appears that Iraqi Television is stating that Al Baghdadi is dead.  In updated stories it appears that Al Masri and Al Baghdadi might still be out there, and instead the coalition forces killed an Al Qaeda information minister, Muharib Abdul Latif al-Jubouri. Update at CNN.

 

This from the International News:

BAGHDAD: The top leader of al-Qaida in Iraq organization Abu Umer al-Baghdadi, also known as head of the so-called Islamic State of Iraq, was killed in western Baghdad neighborhood, state-run Iraqia television reported on Thursday.

“Abu Umer al-Baghdadi was killed in Ghazaliah and his body is under control of the Interior Ministry. His body has been identified,” Brigadier General Abdul Karim Khalaf, spokesman of the Interior Ministry, was quoted as saying.

Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell, spokesman of the Multi-National Force-Iraq, said that he would hold a press conference to discuss recent success against the senior leader of al-Qaida in Iraq. Earlier in the day, a source from Salahudin province was quoted as saying that another senior leader of al-Qaida was killed in the same area on Wednesday.

Muharib Muhammad Abdullah, also known as Abu Abdullah al-Iraqi, is the head of al-Qaida media office.

Al-Iraqi was slaughtered with a knife by militants from the “Islamic Army in Iraq,”an insurgent group, on Wednesday afternoon in Baghdad’s western neighborhood of Ghazaliyah, the source added. It was not clear whether the two sources were referring to the same person or they were two senior al-Qaida leaders killed in the same neighborhood.

One rumor has it that the Sheik who killed Al Masri will not produce the body until the fourth day, since the Sheiks’ son who was killed by Al Masri was not allowed to be buried within three days.

More at Bill Roggios The Fourth Rail
UPDATE: Conflicting reports on both deaths continue to come in, this now appears crazily mixed up, much more at Iraq Slogger.
More at Captain’s Quarters

The past three weeks have certainly been interesting to say the least.

4 thoughts on “Al Baghdadi *Not* dead, Waiting on Confirmation for Al Masri Death”

  1. Thanos,

    There’s an update up over at CQ and at Redstate saying that the U.S. guys are saying it wasn’t Masri or Baghdadi but in fact the dead mutha is Muharib Abdul Latif. I’m not sure if it’s all been confirmed but I think Capt Ed has a link to either the AP or Nyt.

  2. Yes, I know things are breaking fast but I’m on two conf calls at work, not able to stay on top of this — we’ve got a release coming this weekend.

  3. Sorry Thanos, didn’t realize you were swamped there – no biggie, most of the blogs have been trying to figure what is up with all of this. No matter what, it sure all comes out as good news.

  4. Np friend, still getting some posting in while we wait for servers to load etc, just can’t do as thorough a cruise of the paki papers as usual.

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