Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi Killed in Bombing Raid
At last, one more slimy terrorist leader dead!! Hats off to our wonderful military! Good Job, Folks!
AGHDAD, Iraq — Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Al Qaeda in Iraq leader who led a brutal insurgency that included homicide bombings, kidnappings and beheadings, was killed in an airstrike on a building north of Baghdad, U.S. and Iraqi officials announced Thursday.
Officials said the terror leader’s identity was confirmed by fingerprints, facial recognition, and known scars.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki said Al-Zarqawi was killed along with seven aides Wednesday evening at around 6:15 p.m. local time in a bombing raid on a building in a remote area 30 miles northeast of Baghdad in Diyala province.
Loud applause broke out as Al-Maliki, flanked by U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad and U.S. Gen. George Casey, the top commander in Iraq, made the announcement at a news conference in Baghdad Thursday that al-Zarqawi was “terminated.”
Zarqawi’s death came just six days after an audiotape was posted on the Internet, in which the Jordanian-born terrorist leader called on Sunnis to “confront” Shiites in Iraq.
Al-Maliki said the air strike was ordered after residents in the area provided intelligence on the whereabouts of al-Zarqawi and his aides to Iraqi security forces.
A Jordanian official said that Jordan also provided the U.S. military with information that helped in tracking Al-Zarqawi down. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was addressing intelligence issues, would not elaborate, but Jordan is known to have intelligence agents operating in Iraq to hunt down Islamic militants.
Some of the information came from Jordan’s sources inside Iraq and led the U.S. military to the area of Baqouba, the official said.
Baqouba has in recent weeks seen a spike in sectarian violence, including the discovery of 17 severed heads in fruit boxes. It was also near the site of a sectarian atrocity last week in which masked gunmen killed 21 Shiites, including a dozen students, after separating out four Sunni Arabs.
“Those who disrupt the course of life, like Al-Zarqawi, will have a tragic end,” Al-Maliki said. He also warned those who would follow the militant’s lead that “whenever there is a new al-Zarqawi, we will kill him.”
“This is a message for all those who embrace violence, killing and destruction to stop and to (retreat) before it’s too late,” he said. “It is an open battle with all those who incite sectarianism.”
Khalilzad added that “the death of Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi is a huge success for Iraq and the international war on terror.” He also gave a thumbs up and said it was a good day for America.
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