U.S. says it knows real i.d. of new Qaeda leader

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U.S. says it knows real i.d. of new Qaeda leader

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The U.S. military said on Thursday it believed it knew the real identity of the new leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, and expected him to continue the bloody tactics of his slain predecessor.

Al Qaeda on Monday named the successor to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, killed last week in a U.S. air strike, as Abu Hamza al-Muhajir.

"We think that Abu Ayyub al-Masri is in fact, probably, Abu Hamza al-Muhajir. They are probably one and the same," Major General William Caldwell, the spokesman for the U.S. military in Iraq, told a news conference.

Egyptian-born Masri trained in Afghanistan, formed al Qaeda's first cell in Baghdad and was an aide of Zarqawi, according to the U.S. military, which says it has been on his trail for years.