Abu Musab Zarqawi, the al Qaeda-linked terrorist who orchestrates murder and mayhem in Iraq, is so secretive even some operatives who work with him do not know his identity.
| "Who is that masked man?" |
Zarqawi, whose videotaped beheading of American Nicholas Berg further defined the chief U.S. enemy, is a master of disguise and bogus identification papers. It is likely he has been within eyesight of coalition authorities — and not recognized.
| He's only got one leg, that should narrow things down. |
This is the profile drawn by military sources of the most sought-after fugitive in Iraq. Zarqawi may be bin Laden’s best weapon in preventing Iraq from becoming a moderate Arab state that leads the region away from the kind of radical Islam taught by the al Qaeda leader. "All the Marines have a picture of him, and he is our high-value target," said a Marine officer in Iraq. "The problem is that there is no identification system, so it is not out of the ordinary for a target to not have an ID or several IDs with different names. It really is the Wild West. He could easily be moving from town to town using several different names and appearances. "I doubt the cells he operates with know who he is and that there is a $10 million award for him." Added a defense official, "He relies upon trusted associates, hand-delivered communications and other things." The official declined to elaborate. When Iraqi and foreign insurgents sprung an uprising in the frontier town of Fallujah in early April, coalition officials in Baghdad quickly got intelligence clues that Zarqawi himself was in the city. The Washington Times reported May 4 that the military was no longer getting indications that Zarqawi was in Fallujah. If he was ever there, he had left, military sources said. |