Abu Mussib Al Zarqawi, regarding as the leading foreign insurgent in Iraq, was believed to be shuttling between Iran and Iraq. Western intelligence sources said the United States has quietly determined that Al Zarqawi has not been in Iraq for more than a month. The sources said Al Zarqawi left the Sunni Triangle for the Iran-Iraq border and has been moving in an arc from Iran in the east to Syria in the west as he continued to relay orders, plan operations and relay funding. "Much of the time he is in Iran, where he has been given safe haven," an intelligence source said. "The United States won't cross the Iranian border to get him."
The sources said Al Zarqawi was last seen in the Iraqi town of Dour in the area of Baghdad on June 18, where he held a meeting with a senior aide to deposed President Saddam Hussein, Izzat Ibrahim Douri. Douri, regarded as a major financier of the Sunni insurgency, was said to have provided the Al Qaida-aligned insurgent with a large amount of weapons and equipment. From Al Dour, Al Zarqawi traveled to Iran and was said to have been in Marivan in northern Iran through late July. |