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| Iraq |
| US may have just missed Zarqawi in Mosul raid |
| 2005-11-21 |
| Iraq's foreign minister said Monday that terror leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi might have been killed in a gunfight with U.S. forces over the weekend, but U.S. military sources told NBC News that's probably not the case and that troops likely "just missed" capturing him. "American and Iraqi forces are investigating the possibility that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's corpse is among the bodies of some terrorists who died in the special military operation in Mosul," Hoshyar Zebari told Jordan's official Petra news agency during a visit to Moscow. A Pentagon source said that the military did have intelligence that indicated al-Zarqawi was meeting in a Mosul home with high-level Iraq in al-Qaida lieutenants. As soldiers closed in on the site, there was an exchange of small arms fire, then it appears that three al-Qaida suspects blew themselves up to avoid capture. The military is conducting DNA tests on flesh and blood recovered from the scene, but a Pentagon official said indications are that al-Zarqawi is not among those killed. "The information was solid. We just missed him," said one Pentagon source. Separately, White House spokesman Trent Duffy said Sunday that reports of al-Zarqawi's death were "highly unlikely and not credible." "We have no indication that al-Zarqawi was killed in this fight and we continue operations to search for him," added Lt. Col. Barry Johnson, a U.S. military spokesman. The elusive al-Zarqawi has narrowly escaped capture in the past. U.S. forces said they nearly caught him in a February 2005 raid that recovered his computer. In other incidents: * North of the capital, Diyala provincial police said a car bomb targeting U.S. Humvees killed five civilians and wounded 12 bystanders in the town of Kanan. At least 145 Iraqi civilians have died in a series of attacks over the last four days, including two bombings at Shiite mosques and another at a funeral. * U.S. troops opened fire on a minivan north of Baghdad on Monday, fearing a car bomb attack, and killed at least three members of the same family, including a child, the U.S. military and survivors said. The Army said troops had opened fire after first trying to wave the minivan to a stop and then firing warning shots. âThis is a tragedy,â said Maj. Steve Warren, a spokesman for U.S. forces in Baquoba, near where the shooting occurred. * Gunmen killed a Sunni cleric, Khalil Ibrahim, outside his home in the largely Shiite southern city of Basra, police Capt. Mushtaq Talib said. Ibrahim was a member of the Association of Muslim Scholars, a group of influential Sunni clerics that has been sharply critical of the Shiite-led government. * In Baghdad, three people, including one police officer, were killed by gunmen, police said Monday. * Over the weekend an American soldier near the capital and a Marine in the western town of Karmah were killed in separate insurgent attacks, the military said. * The U.S. military also said Sunday that 24 people â including a Marine and 15 civilians â were killed the day before in an ambush on a joint U.S.-Iraqi patrol in Haditha, west of Baghdad in the volatile Euphrates River valley. In Washington, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Sunday on ABC television's "This Week" that commanders' assessments will determine the pace of any military drawdown. About 160,000 U.S. troops are in Iraq as the country approaches parliamentary elections Dec. 15. The Pentagon has said it plans to scale back troop strength to its pre-election baseline of 138,000, depending on conditions. Rumsfeld said Iraqi security forces, currently at 212,000 troops, continue to grow. Rumsfeld also said talk in the United States of a quick withdrawal from Iraq plays into the hands of the insurgents. "The enemy hears a big debate in the United States, and they have to wonder maybe all we have to do is wait and we'll win," he told "Fox News Sunday." In Cairo, Egypt, Iraq's president said Sunday he was ready for talks with anti-government opposition figures and members of Saddam Hussein's outlawed Baath Party, and he called on the Sunni-led insurgency to lay down its arms and join the political process. But President Jalal Talabani, attending an Arab League-sponsored reconciliation conference, insisted that the Iraqi government would not meet with Baath Party members who are participating in the Sunni-led insurgency. "I want to listen to all Iraqis. I am committed to listen to them, even those who are criminals and are on trial," Talabani told reporters, but adding that he would only talk with insurgents if they put down their weapons. In Baghdad, hundreds of Sunnis on Sunday demanded an end to the torture of detainees and called for the international community to pressure Iraqi and U.S. authorities to ensure that such abuse does not occur. Anger over detainee abuse has increased sharply since U.S. troops found 173 detainees, mainly Sunnis and some malnourished and with torture marks on their bodies, at an Interior Ministry prison in Baghdad's Jadriyah neighborhood. Iraq's Shiite-led government has promised an investigation and punishment for anyone guilty of torture. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #8 Eight bodies, fifteen legs. I think we got a match, Doc. |
| Posted by: john 2005-11-21 19:29 |
| #7 This is much too important to jump the gun. Best to be patient, wait, and make sure. |
| Posted by: Ptah 2005-11-21 18:53 |
| #6 Looks like the JPost and possibly Jordanian media are still optimistic. |
| Posted by: JAB 2005-11-21 17:53 |
| #5 I don't think I would buy another "just missed him" with Zarqawi I don't know if we did or not, but that's how it went with Saddam until we finally caught him in the rat hole. |
| Posted by: lotp 2005-11-21 17:11 |
| #4 as Zenster said on a different post "Missed him by that much chief". Maxwell Smart |
| Posted by: plainslow 2005-11-21 16:30 |
| #3 We won't know if we got him for another 2-4 weeks. Our forces are now sifting thru a treasure trove of intelligence. |
| Posted by: danking_70 2005-11-21 16:06 |
| #2 I am still not giving up hope he is dead. If he isn't his days are numbered the net is slowly closing around him. I just want it to be done quickly. |
| Posted by: Mahou Sensei Negi-bozu 2005-11-21 16:01 |
| #1 I don't think I would buy another "just missed him" with Zarqawi. That's just a tad too lucky. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2005-11-21 15:51 |