BAGHDAD, 25 May 2005 — Abu Mussab Al-Zarqawi, the man Americans blame for most insurgent attacks in Iraq, is injured, his Al-Qaeda Organization for Holy War in Iraq said yesterday in a statement on the Internet. The statement urged Muslims to pray for his recovery. Its authenticity could not be verified.
“The injury of our leader is an honor and an incentive to tighten the noose on the enemies of God and a reason to step up our attacks on them,” the statement added.
US Army Lt. Col. Steve Boylan said the US military did not have any information on whether Zarqawi was wounded or what the state of his health was. “He’s still our No. 1 target to be captured or killed and until that happens, the hunt is still on.”
The statement by Zarqawi’s group was posted by a user on a website that often publicizes the group’s activities.
The announcement came on a day the US military announced the killing of nine US soldiers. A car bomb explosion killed three of them in central Baghdad while a fourth was shot in a drive-by shooting. Four more soldiers were killed in another bomb blast a day earlier south of the Iraqi capital, the military said. Also on Monday, a Marine was killed during an attack on an American base in Ramadi, 115 km west of Baghdad.
In the first attack, a bomb rigged to a parked car exploded next to an American convoy as it was patrolling in central Baghdad at 1.30 p.m. About 30 minutes later, also in central Baghdad, a US soldier sitting in the back of a Bradley fighting vehicle at an observation post was shot dead by gunmen in passing car.
The military said the four killed on Monday were hit by an improvised explosive device in Haswa, 50 km south of Baghdad.
As of yesterday, at least 1,642 US military personnel had died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003.
