The US military presented the new face of al-Qaida in Iraq on Thursday, displaying a photograph of a bearded man in a traditional white Arab headdress and saying he was taking over after the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

The new leader is Abu Ayyub al-Masri, an Afghanistan-trained explosives expert with links to Osama bin Laden's top deputy, said Maj. Gen. William Caldwell.

US military spokesman in Baghdad Maj. Gen. William Caldwell, speaks at a press conference in Baghdad, Iraq Thursday, June 15, 2006 next to a video display showing a photograph that purports to show Abu Ayyub al-Masri who is allegedly the man claiming to be the new al-Qaida in Iraq leader and apparently the same person as a man identified by the nom de guerre Abu Hamza al-Muhajer, according to the US Military, who has claimed to have succeeded Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and vowed to avenge him in threatening web statements in recent days. [AP]

He also is the man behind the nom de guerre made public by al-Qaida in Iraq after al-Zarqawi was killed last week in an US airstrike on his safe house outside of Baghdad, the military spokesman said.

However, US National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley said it's not certain that al-Masri is al-Zarqawi's successor.

"That's clearly one of the leading names, but we're going to need a little bit of time to sort out - and they're clearly needing a little time - to sort out where they go after what is clearly a big blow to al-Qaida," Hadley said at the White House.

Caldwell said al-Masri was the man identified in an Internet posting by al-Qaida that said Abu Hamza al-Muhajer was al-Zarqawi's successor. The name means "immigrant" in Arabic and suggested he was not an Iraqi.

According to the US military, Al-Masri was a founding member of al-Qaida in Iraq. After meeting the Jordanian-born al-Zarqawi in Afghanistan, he followed him to Iraq to help set up the terror cell in 2003.

Even before terror leader's death, the Bush administration posted a $200,000 bounty on al-Masri because of his level of leadership within al-Qaida, Caldwell said.

Citing recently declassified documents, he said al-Masri has been a terrorist since 1982, "beginning with his involvement in the Egyptian Islamic Jihad," which was led by Ayman al-Zawahri, bin Laden's top deputy.

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