FACTBOX - Major al Qaeda leaders killed or captured

(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.

Below is a list of major al Qaeda figures killed or captured since 2001:

AFGHANISTAN:

* Mohammed Atef, one of the top leaders of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network, was killed in a U.S. air strike in Afghanistan in November 2001.

ALGERIA:

* Hareg Zoheir, the deputy chief of al Qaeda's North Africa wing, was killed along with two other rebels in a gun battle with Algerian troops in October 2007.

IRAQ:

* Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Masri's forerunner as al Qaeda leader in Iraq, was killed in a U.S. air raid in June 2006.

* U.S. forces killed Muhammed Abdullah Abbas al-Issawi, described as a security emir for al Qaeda in Iraq, in April 2007.

* The U.S. military killed Muharib Abdul Latif al-Jubouri, an al-Qaeda figure accused of involvement in the kidnapping of American journalist Jill Carroll, in May 2007.

* Police killed Mohammed Yahya al-Rahmani, known as Abu Mussab, and three foreign militants near Samarra in Feb 2008.

* In April 2008 Iraqi authorities captured Nazal Sabar al-Jughaify, also known as Abu al-Jarrah, a senior lieutenant to al Qaeda's leader in Iraq, Abu Ayyub al-Masri.

PAKISTAN:

* Saudi-born Palestinian Abu Zubaydah was arrested after a shootout in the central Pakistani city of Faisalabad in March 2002. Zubaydah was operations director for al Qaeda and the first high-ranking member to be arrested.