The U.S. military said it's trying to confirm the Iraqi defense ministry's claim that the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq has been arrested in Mosul.

Iraq War Coverage

A ministry spokesman said police in the northern city captured Abu Ayyub al-Masri during a midnight raid Thursday night. Al-Masri is also known as Abu Hamza al-Muhajir.

Mosul, 225 miles northwest of Baghdad, is currently a major battleground for U.S. forces and al-Qaida.

U.S. military officials said they were surprised by reports of the arrest and intelligence officials said they were skeptical, even though Iraqi officials said he was already in U.S. military custody, reported CNN.

A senior federal law enforcement official told CNN that "U.S. intelligence officials have no information to confirm the report and at this point are skeptical of the reported capture."

"The commander of Ninevah military operations informed me that Iraqi troops captured Abu Hamza al-Muhajir the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq," Mohammed al-Askari told The Associated Press by telephone.

Iraqi state television quoted the Interior Ministry as saying that a source close to the al-Qaida leader tipped off Mosul police about his whereabouts.

Al-Masri, who is Egyptian, took over al-Qaida in Iraq after Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed June 7, 2006 in a U.S. airstrike northeast of Baghdad.

U.S. officials said al-Masri joined an extremist group led by al-Qaida's No. 2 official. He later joined al-Qaida training camps in Afghanistan in 1999 and trained as a car bombing expert before traveling to Iraq after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.

Last year, an umbrella organization called The Islamic State of Iraq announced a "cabinet," naming al-Masri as "minister of war."