Abu Hamza al-Muhajir

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Abu Hamza al-Muhajir (Arabic: أبو حمزة المهاجر‎) is a Sunni militia leader, and according to a Reuters article, was announced in a posting on an unnamed Islamist website as the new leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq on June 12, 2006. This announcement came several days after Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed in a U.S. air strike on June 7, 2006.^[1]^[2]

Not much is known about him. 'Muhajir' is thought to be a pseudonym.^[3] Experts were surprised when it was announced he succeeded Zarqawi.^[1] Major General William Caldwell, the FBI, the U.S. State Department, and others affiliated with them have alleged that Muhajir is the Egyptian militant Abu Ayyub al-Masri, who trained in Afghanistan, formed al Qaeda's first cell in Baghdad, and is sought by the U.S. military as a Zarqawi aide.^[4]. As of June 15, 2006, the U.S. military has confirmed this identification.^[5]There has been some debate as to the accuracy of the U.S. military's claim. On 6 July 6 2006 an Egyptian newspaper indicated that Mamduh Ismail, an Egyptian lawyer, reported that Sharif Hazaa, or Abu Ayyub al-Masri, has been in a Cairo prison for the past seven years.^[6] According to American and Jordanian officials, however, al-Masri is not Sharif Hazaa, but instead an individual by the name of Yusuf al-Dardiri. [1][2]

Like Zarqawi, Muhajir is vehemently anti-Shi'ite, and intends to continue the campaign his predecessor started.^[4].

A claim posted on an Islamic website said that Abu Hamza al-Muhajir personally killed Two U.S. Army soldiers who were captured in Iraq on June 16, 2006, as a means of "making his presence felt." Their bodies were later found mutilated and booby-trapped in Yusufiya, Iraq on June 19, 2006.[3][4]

Muhajir means "immigrant", "emigrant" or "exile" in Arabic, This may indicate that he is not from Iraq,^[7] but rather imply a person who was an "exile" in his own land, as per the original meaning of muhajir. In recent weeks Zarqawi's group has tried to establish a more "local" profile in an attempt to appeal to potential Iraqi recruits, and the name "Muhajir" may alternatively indicate an Iraqi Sunni Muslim who opposed Saddam Hussein. It is known that several radical Sunnis native to Iraq - among them several individuals who were close to Zarqawi and initially believed likely candidated for successorship - were influenced by the former leader's 1990s campaign of reislamization which was initially hailed by Islamist circles (the prime motivation for the secular regime was to make itself more appealing to religiously motivated Iraqis and other Arabs) but dismissed as a sham later.^[8]

On October 5, 2006, a raid took place led by US Forces might have killed the successor to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. However, they are continuing DNA tests to prove that he might be killed.[5] On the date of 1 May 2007 Iraqi officials received information that Abu Ayyub Al-Masri was killed by Sunni tribesmen. Brigadier General Abdul Kareem Khalaf told Reuters: "We have definite intelligence reports that al-Masri was killed today."[6]

However, on April 19, 2008, a recording was released on several Islamist web sites of a speaker who was identified as Abu Hamza al-Muhajir.[7]

On May 8, 2008, it was reported that he had been captured in a US-Iraqi operation. This is not yet confirmed by the U.S. Military. See: Abu Ayyub al-Masri