U.S. military denies capture of top Qaida leader in Iraq

BAGHDAD, May 9 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. military on Friday denied the capture of al-Qaida leader in Iraq Abu Hamza al-Muhajer, whose capturing has been announced earlier.

"There is no information available that the U.S. forces captured or received Abu Hamza al-Muhajer, the leader of the al-Qaida in Iraq network," Abdul Latif al-Rayyan, a spokesman of the Multi-National Forces in Iraq told Xinhua.

Also on Friday morning, an official source in the Iraqi Interior Ministry confirmed to Xinhua that his ministry had no reports about the capture of Muhajer.

On Thursday night, Iraqi official television reported that the Iraqi security forces captured Abu Hamza al-Muhajer, also known as Abu Ayyub al-Masri, during an operation carried out in Mosul, 400 km north of Baghdad.

Al-Muhajer was announced leader of al-Qaida in Iraq after its former chief Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed in an U.S. air strike on June 7, 2006. U.S. military since then identified him as one of the prime candidates to assume direction of the Iraqi insurgency.