FACTBOX - Facts on al Qaeda leader in Iraq

(Reuters) - Iraqi and U.S. forces have detained a man suspected of being the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, Iraqi security officials said on Friday.

A Defence Ministry spokesman said a regional security chief had told him the al Qaeda leader, an Egyptian called Abu Ayyab al-Masri but also known as Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, had been detained.

"American forces have taken him to identify him," he said. The U.S. military said it had no immediate information.

Masri assumed the leadership of al Qaeda in Iraq after Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed in 2006.

Here are some facts on him.

* In June 2006 a statement signed by al Qaeda said the shura council of al Qaeda in Iraq unanimously agreed Masri should succeed Zarqawi".

* The U.S. military has described him as a close Zarqawi associate who trained in Afghanistan and formed al Qaeda's first cell in Baghdad. He had been on a previous list of 29 militants most wanted by the U.S. military.

* A pro-government newspaper published photographs of him on a poster. He was a thin figure with a goatee in a traditional Arab headdress in one photograph and wearing glasses and a green jacket in the other.

* In late June 2006, the United States put a $5 million (2.6 million pound) bounty on Masri's head.