Zarqawi dead
Although we've had false alarms before, al-Qaeda's Iraq wing is confirming that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has been killed in a US airstrike. May he roast in hell.
Al Qaeda in Iraq pledged to continue fighting.
"We tell our prince, Sheikh bin Laden, your soldiers in al Qaeda in Iraq will continue along the same path that you set out for Abu Musab al-Zarqawi," said a statement on an Islamist Web site.
Casey said the body of Zarqawi, thought to be in his late 30s and who had a $25 million U.S. bounty on his head, had been identified and that details of the circumstances of his death would be revealed later on Thursday.
The New York Times has a few more details:
Al Qaeda's leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, was killed in an American air strike on an isolated safe house north of Baghdad at 6.15 p.m. local time on Wednesday, top United States and Iraqi officials said today.
At a joint news conference with Iraq's prime minister, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, the top American military commander in Iraq, Gen. George W. Casey Jr., said Zarqawi's body had been positively identified by fingerprints, "facial recognition" and "known scars." He said seven of Zarqawi's associates had also been killed in the strike.
The US is trying as much as possible to let Prime Minister Maliki shore up his government's legitimacy and credibility with this.
General Casey said an American air strike had targeted "a single dwelling in a wooded area surrounded by very dense palm forest" eight kilometers, or five miles, north of the city of Baquba, and that "precision munitions" had been used, a phrase that usually refers to laser-guided bombs or missiles. An unconfirmed report on Iraq's state-owned television channel, al-Iraqiya, said the attack had been carried out by American attack helicopters.
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