Baghdad: A man calling himself the head of Al-Qaeda in Iraq has been arrested in the north of the country, state television has reported quoting an interior ministry spokesman.

Major General Abdul Karim Khalaf told Al-Iraqiya yesterday that the detained man claimed he was Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, who is also known as Abu Ayyub al-Masri, but that investigations were under way to verify his identity.

"He was arrested in Wad al-Hajar region of Nineveh during a raid yesterday (Wednesday)," Khalaf said. "Now we are conducting more investigations to confirm whether he is Abu Hamza."

Khalaf said the arrest came after another man close to the detained individual said the Al-Qaeda chief was in a house in Wad al-Hajar area.

"The police then raided the area and captured the man who said I am Abu Hamza al-Muhajir ."

Muhajir, whose real name according to the US military is Abu Ayyub al-Masri, is an Egyptian national who was made the chief of the jihadist group in Iraq after the killing of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in a US air strike in June 2006.

Last year, there had been reports that Masri had been killed, but they were later denied.

US military spokesman Major Bradford Leighton said the military was checking the latest report.

"We have no operational reports on that yet. We are checking into it," he told AFP.

The US State Department had posted a five million dollar reward for information leading to Masri s arrest.

The Al-Qaeda kingpin is a car bomb expert, and the details about his real identity even his name have been a source of debate among Iraqi and US security officials.

Source : PTI