LONDON, 12 June 2006 — The leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, may have been beaten to death by US forces following the airstrike on his safe house, two British newspapers claimed yesterday.

The Observer and the Sunday Times both carried reports on events leading to his death, citing apparent eyewitnesses to the immediate aftermath of the attack near the city of Baquba, northeast of Baghdad, last Wednesday.

In a two-page report, The Observer said that although there was no corroboration of the claims that the badly injured Zarqawi was beaten to death, revelations of revenge killings by US troops “means it cannot be discounted.”

It quoted one man as saying US soldiers pulled a man resembling Zarqawi from an ambulance where local residents had placed him, wrapped his traditional Arab robe around his head and “battered him severely till he died.”

The Sunday Times went into more detail, citing 25-year-old laborer Ali Abbas as saying: “They (the US soldiers) were shouting and screaming and in a very tense and agitated mood.”

He added: “The Americans tore his dishdasha and they kept on asking him through an interpreter, ‘What is your name, what is your name?’.” The troops were said to have been worried that the man was wearing a suicide belt. Abbas said the soldiers kicked the wounded man in the chest until he grew paler and began bleeding from his mouth before he died.

He apparently recognized the dead man as Zarqawi after seeing pictures in newspapers the following day.

Both newspapers carried US military confirmation that Zarqawi was not dead after the initial airstrike and that he had tried to roll off the stretcher when he realized the soldiers’ identity.

The leader of coalition forces in Iraq dismissed as “ludicrous” reports that Zarqawi may have been beaten to death by US. “That’s baloney,” said US Gen. George Casey, speaking to the Fox News Sunday television program.

“We’ve already gone back and looked at it. Our soldiers who came on the scene found him being put in an ambulance by Iraqi police, they took him off, rendered first aid, and he expired,” Casey said.

“He died while American soldiers were attempting to save his life. So the idea that there were people there beating him is just ludicrous,” he added.

In Baghdad, the US command said two US military forensic specialists finished an autopsy yesterday on the remains of Zarqawi, part of an investigation to determine how he died and reconstruct the last minutes of his life.

“The autopsy is completed. However, we are not releasing results yet,” said US Maj. William Willhoite.

Maj. Gen. William Caldwell, a spokesman for the US military in Baghdad, said Saturday that the decision to fly in forensic experts was made shortly after Zarqawi’s death. The airstrike also killed five others, including Zarqawi’s adviser, Sheikh Abdul Rahman.

“I think if we don’t do a full autopsy then that might be irresponsible on our part,” Caldwell said. “I think we sort of owe that just for this reason: How did he actually die?”

Iran said yesterday it was happy over the death of Zarqawi. “Zarqawi’s death sparked joy among Iraqis, which shows he was hated by the Iraqi people. We are also happy about what happened,” ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told reporters in Tehran.