top news - "iraq"

BAGHDAD, May 9 -- A U.S. military spokesman said a man detained Thursday in northern iraq is not wanted terrorist Abu Hamza al-Muhajer, the leader of the Sunni insurgent group al-Qaeda in iraq.

BAQUBA, May 9 (IPS) - Water supply is drying out in what was once the agriculturally rich Diyala province north of Baghdad. Baquba, the capital city of Diyala, is now running out of water both for drinking and for irrigation.

Abu Ayyub al-Masri, the head of al Qaeda in iraq, has not been captured, a senior U.S. military official told CNN on Friday.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi forces have detained a man suspected of being the head of al Qaeda in iraq after a captured associate led them to him sleeping in a house in the northern city of Mosul, several Iraqi officials said on Friday.

The Iraqi Defense Ministry claims Washington's prime target, Abu Ayyub al-Masri, has been arrested, but the White House seems skeptical.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - He backs an unpopular war in iraq, represents an unpopular political party and is endorsed by an unpopular president in the midst of an economic downturn.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi yesterday postponed consideration of a bill that would continue funding for the wars in iraq and Afghanistan as a bloc of conservative Democrats balked at the high cost of including several of Pelosi's favored domestic spending programs.

Army Spc. Tom Owens first went through basic training in 1969. Now, at 56, he's back in uniform with hopes of being deployed to iraq or Afghanistan.

BAGHDAD, May 9 -- Iraqi police announced early Friday the capture of Abu Hamza al-Muhajer, the leader of the Sunni insurgent group al-Qaeda in iraq, but the U.S. military said it could not confirm the report.

The US military in iraq says a man detained in Mosul is not in fact the leader of al-Qaeda in iraq.