Is Abu Musab al-Zarqawi dead? Adnkronos International, who was first in reporting Zarqawi was injured on May 11, reports Zarqawi died today and his body has been placed in a cemetery in Fallujah.
bq. Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi – al Qaeda’s leader in Iraq – died on Friday and his body is in Fallujah’s cemetary, an Iraqi Sunni sheikh, Ammar Abdel Rahim Nasir, has told the Saudi on-line newspaper Al-Medina. He claims that gunfights which broke out in Fallujah in the last few days involved militants trying to protect the insurgency leader’s tomb from a group of American soldiers patrolling the area.
bq.. During a telephone conversation from the city of Fallujah with the Saudi newspaper, Nasir said al-Zarqawi was taken there after being injured in the city of Ramadi around three weeks ago, and may have been treated by two doctors who had worked with his aides in Baghdad. He said the two doctors had stopped a serious haemorrhage in al-Zarqawi’s intestines, but that after his condition worsened last week, the militant died on Friday.
Nasir adds that in his will the insurgent leader left the order that no funeral should be held for him and the right to announce his death should be left to the al Qaeda leadership in Afghanistan and Osama bin Laden.
The Al-Medina newspaper reports that it also called the headmaster of a school in Fallujah, who preferred to remain anonymous, but confirmed that many people in the city were aware of the fact that al-Zarqawi had recently been taken to the city.
p. Skirmishes outside the cemetery in Fallujah could not be confirmed. Andrew Cochran of The Counterterrorism Blog informs me that “a host of well-placed sources of good intel, including inside the US Government, are now involved” in investigating the claim of Zarqawi’s death. Andrew also cautions that news source Al-Medina, which is cited in the Adnkronos International article, is “not a consistently reliable source according to knowledgeable overseas press.” A fair warning.
ABC News reports there is little news on Zarqawi’s whereabouts, however the CIA sees “symptoms of discord” within al Qaeda in Iraq, providing further evidence that something is amiss within the organization.
“When I look at these Web Sites I see symptoms of needing to rally the troops. I see symptoms of discord,” the [CIA] official said, mimicking the contradictory nature of their reports:
“‘Here’s his successor’, ‘No he’s not his successor’, ‘He’s really injured with shrapnel in his lung’, ‘I’m okay, bin Laden’. What does this all mean?” he asked.
“For all of their media savvy, it certainly seems like there’s confusion in the ranks when I look at the volume of information that they are putting out there.”
The rumor of Zarqawi’s death should be easy to confirm. If his body is indeed in the cemetery in Fallujah, the government should be able to easily find it and conduct a DNA test to match DNA from Zarqawi’s family which is undoubtedly on file. Nothing will seal the deal like Zarqawi’s corpse.
Recent Background Posts on Zarqawi:
* al Qaeda in Iraq: Next in Line
* The Struggle for Zarqawi’s Throne
* Zarqawi’s Destination: Which Country?
* Zarqawi: “Chest Pains” and More Middlemen
* The Network of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in Iraq
