Posted on 06/30/2006 9:31:28 PM PDT by LibWhacker
United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has authorised a reward of up to $A6.7 million for information leading to wanted Al Qaeda leader Abu Ayyub al-Masri in Iraq.
Deputy State Department spokesman Adam Ereli says the reward has been offered in the hope it would encourage persons to come forward with information on al-Masri.
The State Department says al-Masri is an Egyptian national and a senior Al Qaeda leader in Iraq.
He is a direct associate of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the former leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq, who was recently killed by US forces.
"Trained in Afghanistan and Pakistan, al-Masri is an explosives expert specialising in the construction of Vehicle-Borne Improvised Explosive Devices," the same bombs responsible for large numbers of US troop casualties, a statement said.
Zarqawi was the most-wanted man in Iraq until he was killed in a US air strike on his hideout three weeks ago.
He orchestrated a bloody campaign of attacks and beheadings of hostages and had long remained elusive in Iraq, despite a $US25 million bounty, until his killing on June 7.
The true identity of al-Masri remains an enigma in his reported homeland of Egypt.
Zarqawi's successor is believed to have lived in the central Cairo area of Zawyia Hamra before going to Afghanistan in the late 1980s or early 1990s, and then on to Iraq via Iran.
Sure would be nice if our TF77/145, could bushwack this clown soon, and put another deep hurting on the AQIR operations.
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