The U.S. military released info on the man claiming to be the new Al Qaeda leader in Iraq: Abu Ayyub al Masri, an Egyptian with ties to Osama bin Laden’s deputy, Ayman al Zawahri.

AP:

The U.S. military said Thursday the man claiming to be the new al-Qaida in Iraq leader is Abu Ayyub al-Masri, an Egyptian with ties to Osama bin Laden’s deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri.

Maj. Gen. William Caldwell, a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad, said al-Masri apparently is the same person that al-Qaida in Iraq identified in a Web posting last week as its new leader ? Abu Hamza al-Muhajer, a nom de guerre. Al-Muhajer claimed to have succeeded Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was killed in a June 7 U.S. airstrike, and vowed to avenge him in threatening Web statements in recent days.

The military showed a picture of al-Masri wearing a traditional white Arab headdress at a Baghdad news conference.

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