BAGHDAD, 9 June 2006 — Al-Qaeda’s chief in Iraq Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, who orchestrated a bloody campaign of attacks and beheadings, has been killed in an airstrike. He was killed in a raid by two F-16 warplanes which dropped two 500-pound bombs on a safe house north of Baghdad where he was holding a meeting with fellow militants, ending years of hunting for Iraq’s most wanted — and elusive — fugitive.
Seven other top insurgents were also killed in the Wednesday evening raid, a joint US-Jordanian operation, which the US military said was the fruit of a painstaking tracking of Zarqawi since December 2004.
US President George W. Bush and other leaders welcomed the killing of the Jordanian-born insurgent who carried a $25 million bounty on his head, but also cautioned Al-Qaeda remains a dangerous force in Iraq and worldwide.
Zarqawi, blamed for much of the daily bloodshed that has bedeviled Iraq in its transition after the toppling of Saddam Hussein in 2003 “has been terminated,” Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki told a news conference.
“Anyone who looks to emulate Zarqawi, we will find him and kill, this is an open war between unified Iraqi people and sectarianism,” Maliki added.
Bush hailed Zarqawi’s death as a “severe blow to Al-Qaeda” and a victory in the war on terror, adding that it presented “an opportunity for Iraq’s new government to turn the tide on this struggle.” But Bush cautioned: “The difficult and necessary mission in Iraq continues. We can expect the terrorists and insurgents to carry on without him. We can expect the sectarian violence to continue.”
British Prime Minister Tony Blair echoed his comments, welcoming the death as a blow to Al-Qaeda everywhere but also striking a note of caution, saying that the violence would continue.
Zarqawi, a shadowy figure appointed the leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq in 2004 by Osama Bin Laden, was notorious for brutality which reputedly extended to personally beheading two British and American hostages in Internet videos.
Gen. George W. Casey Jr., head of US-led forces in Iraq said Zarqawi and one of his key lieutenants Sheikh Abdel Rahman were killed at 6.15 p.m. Wednesday in the airstrike on the isolated safe house.
He said Zarqawi’s death outside Baquba, 60 km (36 miles) north of the capital, “is a significant blow to Al-Qaeda.”
“Tips and intelligence from Iraqi senior leaders from his network led forces to Zarqawi and some of his associates, who were conducting a meeting approximately eight km north of Baquba, when the airstrike was launched.
“Iraqi police were first on the scene after the airstrike and elements of Multinational Division North arrived shortly thereafter. Coalition forces were able to identify Zarqawi by fingerprint verification, facial recognition and known scars,” the general said.
Maliki said that seven other leading lieutenants of Zarqawi, including two women who were working as spies for him, were killed in the airstrike. Sources close to Zarqawi’s family said one of his three wives were among the dead. The military said Abdel Rahman had been tracked for several days and led the US-led forces to the safe house.
An Al-Qaeda statement on a website confirmed the death. “We announce the martyr death of our sheikh, fighter Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi,” said a statement, whose authenticity could not be verified. His death “would only reinforce our determination to pursue jihad,” the statement said.
US military spokesman Maj. Gen. Bill Caldwell showed photographs of the slain militant’s to reporters at a news conference. He also predicted that Zarqawi would be succeeded by an Egyptian born lieutenant known as Abu Al-Masri, whose movements have been monitored for some time and who is believed to have first come to Iraq in 2002.
A senior Jordanian official revealed that the kingdom, a top US ally in the Middle East as well as Zarqawi’s birthplace, had played a key role in the operation. “Zarqawi was killed... in a joint operation involving the Jordanian intelligence, the US intelligence and American special operations forces. It was a land operation with air cover.” A Jordanian woman whose wedding was devastated last year by a suicide bombing claimed by Zarqawi rejoiced at his killing. “I am happy from the bottom of my heart,” said Nadia Al-Alami.
“God is great and he does not forget anyone,” she added in a telephone interview from Kuwait.
In November 60 people were killed in triple suicide bombings targeting Amman hotels, including the luxury Radisson SAS where Alami and her husband Ashraf Al-Akhrass were celebrating their wedding.
Alami’s mother and father were killed in the blast, along with her father-in-law, and other friends and relatives.
“He got what he deserved. He was punished for what he did to Arab and Muslim people,” said Alami.
In the bleak Jordanian city of Zarqa where Zarqawi grew up, shocked relatives mourned his death as a loss to Islam and prayed for 1,000 “Zarqawis” to fight the Americans in his place. “This is a tragedy. We are all sad here,” said Zarqawi’s uncle, Yazm Khalayleh, 64. “We have to be sad because he was fighting the infidels. Anyone who says he is not sad is lying; people believe he is a martyr. We do not want to believe that he is dead.”
Jubilant Shiites distributed sweets and jumped for joy in the streets to celebrate the killing of Zarqawi. In the capital’s Shiite-dominant Kadhimiyah neighborhood, women and children were seen distributing chocolates to Iraqi soldiers as they danced in the streets.
Iraqi army soldiers were also seen dancing at city checkpoints, while in the neighborhood’s Al-Kadhim shrine many Shiites were seen offering prayers to thank God for the death of country’s most wanted militant.
Seventy-year-old Shams Abdallah came to the shrine to thank God for Zarqawi’s death. “My sons were killed in 2005 by Zarqawi’s people as they traveled between Ramadi and Fallujah,” she said.
