Iraq’s Interior Ministry claims that Al-Masri is dead, but its track record is piss-poor and it turns out the claim is based on so-called tribal reports and not a body ID. The official scorer, of course, is the U.S., but even if Al-Masari has been offed, it’s not time to open the champagne.
As Marc Lynch explains at Abu Aardvark:
If it is true, it would be great in terms of getting rid of someone responsible for a lot of the worst outrages in Iraq. Politically, however, the most likely effect will be similar to the Zarqawi hit. Like Zarqawi, Masri has been increasingly divisive in the insurgency . . . If he’s gone, it may be exactly what the insurgency factions need to repair their frayed ties and to refocus on fighting the American occupation rather than each other.
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