US military denies killing al Qaeda leader in Iraq

BAGHDAD, Oct 5 (Reuters) The US military today denied reports it had killed the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq Abu Ayyub al-Masri.

''There was a raid where we thought he may have been among those killed. We are still doing DNA tests but we do not believe coalition forces have killed al-Masri,'' US military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Barry Johnson told Reuters.

Earlier, an Iraqi government source, who did not want to be named, said Masri and three of his aides were killed in the western Iraqi town of Haditha yesterday after US forces launched an airstrike and ground assault on a safe house.

Masri's predecessor, Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, was killed in a US airstrike in June.

REUTERS PB HS1431