Experts think this is a nonevent, regardless of its truth.

The leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Ayyub al-Masri, was killed Tuesday in an internal fight between insurgents north of Baghdad, the Interior Ministry spokesman said.

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"Clearly taking a major terrorist off the battlefield is an important thing and if we can confirm it, if this did happen, without question it would be a significant and positive development," Crocker said. "That said, I would not expect it to in any way bring to end Al Qaeda's activities in Iraq. We saw the organization adjust to the death of Zarqawi.

"My sense is that it is a now a very decentralized terrorist effort, so while removing its current head would be a good and positive thing, I think we have to expect that we will need to continue dealing with further Al Qaeda attacks."

Do you know, or are you guessing?

Asked again to confirm Masri was dead, Mr Bolani said: “If he has not been killed today, he will be killed tomorrow.”

I get the impression that by "today" and "tomorrow", he did not mean specifically "May 1, 2007" and "May 2, 2007".