U.S. forces sealed off a house in the northern city of Mosul where eight suspected al-Qaida members died in a gunfight - some by their own hand to avoid capture. A U.S. official said Sunday that efforts were under way to determine if terror leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was among the dead....
In Washington, a U.S. official said the identities of the terror suspects killed in the Saturday raid was unknown. Asked if they could include al-Zarqawi, the official replied: "There are efforts under way to determine if he was killed."
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information.
On Saturday, police Brig. Gen. Said Ahmed al-Jubouri said the raid was launched after a tip that top al-Qaida operatives, possibly including al-Zarqawi, were in the house in the northeastern part of the city.
During the intense gunbattle that followed, three insurgents detonated explosives and killed themselves to avoid capture, Iraqi officials said.
November 20, 2005
Is al-Zarqawi dead?
The AP reports:
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13 comments:
Hey, Ann, he doesn't get his 72 virgin sheep if he killed himself, does he? (A lot of the sheep in New Zealand are pretty nervous about now.)
Answer: I hope so.
If Dante were Muslim (and in control of such things), perhaps Zarqawi's punishment would be perpetual deflowering at the "hands" of all those bombers he "hires". Wouldn't that be a kick in the pants (so to speak)?
Anyway -- here's to his brains messing up a Mosul house...
I've posted a roundup of recent items on this here:
Dreams Into Lightning: Is Zarqawi Dead?
Eight fewer Islamo-fascists. That's a good day even if al-Zarqawi wasn't one of the dead.
Most likely the latest Mosque desecration in Mosul lead directly to some slightly less insane Sunni to rat out the crazies.
Puts propaganda pieces like this one in perspective.
Maybe the recent increase in violence had nothing to do with the usual laundry list of perceived U.S. failure and had everything to do with putting pressure on cornered animals whose only choice was to lash out as they were being killed.
The terrorists are running out of friends and hiding places while the Iraqis willing to hammer out political solutions to their differences are gaining allies, doesn't sound like a quagmire to me, but I'm sure I'll be proven wrong by the WaPo and NYT. There isn't any event in SW Asia that can't be spun into a defeat for the Bush administration.
And if the none of the chunks of gore turn out to be Zarqawi's, it doesn't matter, his turn will come soon.
It's hard to believe that Zarqawi would travel around much outside of Baghdad.... unless he never was in Baghdad
I clicked on Shoshanna's excellent roundup link, and saw this update:
UPDATE: Tammy Bruce writes: "Let's pray this is true. Please, please, please. Let us all think happy thoughts that this freak is personally learning that it's not 72 virgins terrorist Islamists get when they die, it's 72 Virginians (perhaps Thomas Jefferson among them)
As they say on Blogosphere: *LOL*.
Cheers,
Victoria
According to the latest news release the White House say it is "highly unlikely to be al Zarqawi".
I kinda think not either...why why, am I so pessimistic on what would be the earliest and second-best Christmas present for so many this year?
I find it frankly astounding that this person (if we're talking about a person and not some hybrid myth with muliple faces), has been able to operate with impunity under the Americans' noses for years!
Me too...
If Israel had a hand in this - MOSSAD would have fried him long before now.
Oh please God no.
As much as the Iraqis dislike the Americans being around on their soil, if the MOSSAD had a hand in killing this freak, it'll have the worst adverse reaction to this infinitely positive hit.
The Joos...the Joos...that's all they'll say -- and legitimise every half-baked conspiracy theory they've ever had.
*sigh*
Cheers,
Victoria
Freak running around for years...
I have 2 words for you. Eric Rudolph.
Atlanta Olympic bomber and abortion-clinic bomber -- on the lam in the Appalachians (NC, GA, and TN) for over 9 years. If we can't catch that guy with all of the day to day video surveillance, publicity, internet, etc. What makes anyone think we can catch a guy with indigenous roots and aid, on his own (or close to it) soil, with millions of dollars and high tech equipment and most likely the logistical help of at least one government?
The likelihood of ever catching Zarqawi or bin Laden is 50-50 (and that may be generous) -- limit their effectiveness and keeping them on the run yes. In the long run it may get better as their ability ot retaliate on "rats" lessens and the reward money starts to become a better motivation.
Someone said:
If Israel had a hand in this - MOSSAD would have fried him long before now.
It's not that the Mossad is more efficient, but rather, that they are able to use tactics that our agencies would come under much criticism for.
Further, finding Zarqawi is like finding a needle in a haystack. Even in our own country, we have various loners and killers who have fled into the mountains or disappeared for months at a time; Warren Jeffs, the notorious pedophile and head of a breakaway Mormon sect, has yet to be found.
I tend to doubt Zarqawi would be up near Mosul given the proximity to Kurdish populations, unless he is using some sort of counter-intuitive method in choosing his safe zones.
Even if none of the chunks of gore are Zarqawi's at least he has one less place to hide, and 8 fewer followers to carry out murderous attacks. Someone should say every day in the arab press that every suicide attack not performed by Zawahiri, Zarqawi, or Bin Laden is another example of their cowardice and lack of commitment to jihad.
I can just imagine 25 years from now in a alternate universe where the crazies won (it won't be this one, defeat isn't an option), some Sheik or Mullah declaiming a rival by saying, "My rival is a chickenhawk, he had 5 different suicide belts strapped to his body and never blew himself up once!"
Thank Allah that will never happen.
Another reason to question whether it was he, so close to Mosul, is that the population there has apparently moved fairly significantly from being pro-Al Qaeda to being fairly strongly anti.
If you want more details, go to Michael Yon's blog and look under all the entries that include the word "Mosul". He was embedded with "Deuce Four", a Stryker battalion just rotated home that was tasked with pacifying Mosul. And his posts make interesting reading about the situation there.
In short, shortly after Fallujah, a lot of Al Qaeda (in Iraq) moved to Mosul and ran off the police there. It was a long bloody fight to push them back out. But a lot of things contibuted. Deuce Four left the city in able primarily Iraqi hands.
Probably the biggest mistake Al Qaeda made in Mosul was when they started killing kids. Photos of GIs holding wounded kids and our medics working on them were repeated played on Iraqi TV. The result of this was a big increase in the tips received by the IDF, resulting in two successive "Emirs" or local Al Qaeda commanders there being taken out the week that the unit was being rotated out.
Are there still Al Qaeda operating in Mosul? Obviously, esp. from this strike. But it hasn't been safe for them for months now, which is why I doubt that Zarqawi was hiding there. Too many of the local population would turn him in, both for the reward, and, more importantly, for what his troops had done there.
Of all of Michael Yon's posts, maybe the best summary of the situation in Mosul is titled: "Battle for Mosul: Progress Report", dated Sept. 9.
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