U.S. military says it is 'highly unlikely' al-Qaida in Iraq leader killed in raid

BAGHDAD, Iraq — The U.S. military is performing DNA tests on a slain militant to determine if he is the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, but U.S. and Iraqi officials said Thursday it did not appear that Abu Ayyub al-Masri had been killed.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made a surprise visit to Baghdad, saying she will tell its leaders they have limited time to settle political differences spurring sectarian and insurgent violence.

"They don't have time for endless debate of these issues," Rice told reporters aboard her plane. "They have really got to move forward. That is one of the messages that I'll take, but it will also be a message of support and what can we do to help."

Reports that al-Masri, also known as Abu Hamza al-Muhajer, had been killed surfaced after a raid Tuesday that killed four terror suspects in the western Iraqi town of Haditha.

U.S. forces initially "thought there was a possibility al-Masri was among them," Lt. Col. Barry Johnson said. But he said it did not appear the terror chief was killed.

"We have no reason to believe that we've killed al-Masri," Johnson told the Associated Press. "We are doing DNA testing to completely eliminate the possibility that this would be al-Masri, but we do not believe it is."

The statement came four days after Iraq's national security adviser, Mouwafak al-Rubaie, said U.S. and Iraqi forces were closing in on al-Masri.

But chief U.S. military spokesman Maj. William B. Caldwell was more skeptical on Wednesday.

"I'd love to tell you we're going to get him tonight," he told reporters. "But, obviously, that's a very key, critical target for all of us operating here in Iraq. ... We feel very comfortable that we're continuing to move forward very deliberately in an effort to find him and kill or capture him."

Caldwell said a driver for al-Masri had been captured in a Sept. 28 raid in Baghdad, the second figure close to the al-Qaida in Iraq chief to be captured that month.

"We're obviously gleaning some key critical information from those individuals and others that have been picked up," he said, adding that 110 al-Qaida suspects were killed and 520 detained in September.

Johnson would not say what kind of a DNA sample existed that tests of the body might be compared to, but said "we're confident we will be make a positive I.D., or not, when the time comes."

The process "can take weeks to resolve," Johnson said.