Al-Qaeda in Iraq leader 'killed'

This is just breaking and unconfirmed, from the BBC:

The interior ministry in Iraq says it has received intelligence
that the head of al-Qaeda in Iraq has been killed.
Abu Ayyub al-Masri,
believed to be an Egyptian, has led the group since June 2006 when Abu Musab
al-Zarqawi was killed in a US air strike.
Al-Qaeda in Iraq is blamed for or
has claimed some of the bloodiest insurgent attacks in Iraq since 2003.
According to Iraqi officials, al-Masri was killed in an "internal battle"
between militants.

With events transpiring so quickly in the conflict, I wouldn't be surprised if this is true. Our troops are hitting the enemy without respite.

Update- Bill Roggio reports:

Initial reports indicated fighting "between insurgents"
resulted in al-Masri's death, however this has since changed to "local tribes."
The tribe is being reported to hail from Fallujah. If this is accurate, the
death of Abu Ayyub al-Masri would have come at the hands of none other than
Sheikh Abdul Sattar al-Risha's Anbar Salvation Council. As we've noted in the
past, the 1920s Revolution Brigades and other Sunni insurgent groups have signed on with the Anbar Salvation Council to
fight al Qaeda and secure Anbar province.

The tribe in question would very likely be the Albu Issa,
which are prominent in Fallujah and regions to the east. An internal schism
exists within the tribe, with the urbanized Albu Issas siding with the Anbar
Salvation Council and Iraqi government, and the rural branches in towns such as
Amiriya supporting al Qaeda in Iraq.

More later.

Richard Miniter at Pajamas Media writes:

When it comes to war, al Masri is a cool and calibrated
professional. He ordered a retreat from Baghdad months before the surge reached
full power (which it hasn’t yet) and a regrouping in Diahalla province,
northeast of Baghdad on the Iranian border. The area is a base of
support—especially in the form of “taxes” extracted at gunpoint from
residents—and is more easily defended.
From there, he ordered massive car
bombings of Baghdad, in the way a general would call in air support.
Or, if
you want to use mafia metaphors, al Masri operates in the cool style of Michael
Corleone in the Godfather trilogy of al Qaeda, while Zarqawi was more like the
sadistic Scarface.
Given his special skills and leadership ability, al
Masri’s death would be a real blow to al Qaeda operations in Iraq.

Some say like the now deceased former head in Iraq Zarqawi, does al Masr's death really matter since he will simply be replaced by another fanatic? But if the above is any indication, Bin Laden has lost one of his top brains.

Also, the Tank at National Review reveals:

There is likely a body (hopefully al-Masri’s), but it may not be in
the Iraqi government’s direct possession. That would perhaps explain the
somewhat perplexing choice of words (or perhaps also attributed to translation),
and claims of having "seen the body" while carefully not claiming to be in
possession of it. It may well be in the ASF’s possession still, or even handed
directly to American forces.

Stay tuned. If this turns out to be true, it would be a severe blow not only to Al Qaeda, but to the "War is lost" crowd in Congress.