Updated on Monday, October 09, 2006, 00:00 IST

Cairo, Oct 08: A statement posted today on an Internet website known as a clearing-house for al-Qaeda material denied recent speculation that the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq is dead.

Reports that Abu Ayyub al-Masri had been killed surfaced after a raid Tuesday that killed four militants in the western Iraqi town of Haditha. Al-Masri is believed to have taken over al-Qaeda in Iraq after Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed June 7 in a US airsrike.

On Thursday, the US military announced it was conducting DNA tests on a slain militant to determine if he is the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq. However, US and Iraqi officials said it did not appear that the militant was al-Masri, who also is known as Abu Hamza al-Muhajer.

The today statement signed by the Mujahedeen Shura council - an umbrella organisation of insurgent groups, including al-Qaida in Iraq - said "al-Qaeda in Iraq and the rest of the brothers in the Mujahedeen Sura Council are in their best shape."

"The group is getting stronger day after day and our sheik Abu Hamza al-Muhajer is in his best health, plotting for battles," the statement said.

US officials said al-Masri joined an extremist group led by al-Qaeda's no 2 official Ayman al-Zawahri in 1982. He joined al-Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan in 1999 and trained as a car bombing expert before travelling to Iraq after the US-led invasion in 2003.

Bureau Report