Iraq's Al-qaida Chief Wounded, Claim Local Police

Security forces have wounded al-Qaida's top man in Iraq in a clash north of Baghdad, Iraqi government officials said today.

Unconfirmed reports indicated that Abu Ayyub al-Masri, also known as Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, had escaped after being hurt.

Security officials told Reuters that a Masri aide had been killed in the clash, when a group of militants were intercepted by Iraqi police while on their way to the town of Samarra, north of Baghdad.

The US military in Baghdad were unable to confirm the reports. An Egyptian Islamist militant, Mr Masri was a senior aide to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the al-Qaida in Iraq leader killed in a US bombing attack last June.

US Pentagon sources at the time identified Mr Masri as among the prime candidates to take over al-Qaida operations in Iraq. The US, which has put a $5m (£2.6m) bounty on his head, says he is a native Egyptian about 39 years old.

He joined the Muslim Brotherhood and in 1982 became a member of Egyptian Islamic Jihad which later became part of al-Qaida. He went to Afghanistan in 1999, where he became an explosives expert and in 2004 assumed responsibility for al-Qaida's overseas networks.

In Baghdad, Iraqi and US troops were out in force today, operating checkpoints and searching vehicles for weapons under a new security crackdown to quell sectarian violence.

Major Steven Lamb, a spokesman for US forces in Baghdad, said the offensive was going well.

"I wouldn't say there has been a high level of resistance. I mean if you take a look at the stuff that was going on yesterday, we had relatively few incidents, but that may change today," he said.

"It's really too early to say if this is going to be a success or ... failure. But so far everyone is very pleased."

Maj Lamb said sweeps had been conducted in known hot spots, such as the Shia stronghold of Kadhimiya, Sunni-dominated Adhamiya and the districts of Rusafa, Karrada and Rashid.

However, military analysts say many militiamen are likely to have left Baghdad or are lying low until the operation is completed.

The Iraqi president, Jalal Talabani, said yesterday he believed the anti-American Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr had ordered heads of his Mahdi army militia to leave Iraq.

The US says the militia, which rose up twice against American forces in 2004, is the greatest threat to Iraq's security. US and Iraqi forces have arrested hundreds of its members in recent months.