Al Qaeda in Iraq leader killed - Interior Ministry

BAGHDAD, May 1 (Reuters) The leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Ayyub al-Masri, was killed today in an internal fight between militants north of Baghdad, the Interior Ministry spokesman said.

Brigadier-General Abdul Kareem Khalaf told Reuters ''we have definite intelligence reports that al Masri was killed today''.

Another source in the ministry also said Masri had been killed. Khalaf said Iraqi and U.S. forces were not involved.

The US military said it could not confirm the reports.

There has been increasing friction between Sunni Islamist al Qaeda and other Sunni Arab insurgent groups in Iraq, particularly over al Qaeda's indiscriminate killing of civilians.

Masri, an Egyptian, assumed the leadership of al Qaeda in Iraq after Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed in a US air strike in June 2006.

Iraqi officials have blamed al Qaeda in Iraq for destroying a holy Shi'ite shrine in Samarra a year ago, an act that unleashed a surge in sectarian bloodletting that has driven Iraq closer to all-out civil war.

The US military has described Masri, also known as Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, as a close Zarqawi associate. Washington has a 5 million dollars bounty on Masri's head.

REUTERS RJ BD1405