cairo ´ The true identity of Abu Ayyub Al Masri, the man said to have succeeded the slain Abu Musab Al Zarqawi as leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq, remains an enigma in his reported homeland of Egypt.

‘His real name is Yussef Al Dardiri, he is around 38 years old and he comes from Upper Egypt,’ Montasser Al Zayat, a lawyer and former member of the Islamist group Gamaa Islamiya, said.

But Egyptian security sources insist they have not heard of the name.

‘The Egyptian security services have not heard of any Egyptian by this name, but since his name has been released, we are researching and investigating the matter, a security source said.

Diaa Rashwan, an expert on political Islam at Cairo’s Al Ahram Centrefor Strategic Studies, said he too had not come across the name. ‘There is no trace of such a name in the Egyptian radical Islamic files,’ he said.

The US military on Thursday released pictures of the Egyptian who it said was the successor of Zarqawi, who was killed in a US air strike north of Baghdad on June 7. Coalition forces spokesman Major General William Caldwell said the new leader, Abu Ayyub Al Masri, also known as Sheikh Abu Hamza AlMuhajer, was believed to be operating out of Baghdad.
thepeninsulaqatar.com

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