|
DNA tests on slain militant
05/10/2006 14:44 - (SA)
Baghdad - Tests are being done on DNA taken from a slain militant to determine if he is al-Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Ayyub al-Masri, but the US military said it is "highly unlikely" that the terror chief had been killed.
US military spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Barry Johnson said a number of al-Qaeda suspects were killed in a recent raid in western Anbar province and initially "we thought there was a possibility al-Masri was among them".
"As we did further analysis, we determined that it was highly unlikely that he was killed," Johnson told the Associated Press.
"We are doing DNA testing to completely eliminate the possibility that this would be al-Masri, but we do not believe it is."
Tests could take weeks
Johnson would not say what kind of a DNA sample existed that tests of the body might be compared to, but said "we're confident we will be make a positive ID, or not, when the time comes".
The process "can take weeks to resolve," Johnson said.
Iraqi defence ministry spokesperson, Qassim al-Moussawi, said the "report of (al-Masri's) death is not true".
Al-Masri, whose pseudonym means "the Egyptian," took over al-Qaeda in Iraq after Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed on June 7 in a US air strike northeast of Baghdad.
- AP
|
News
