Breaking - Al-Zarqawi May Be Among Dead in Iraq Fight

[SWJED]

AP and others now reporting - Al-Zarqawi May Be Among Dead in Iraq Fight

U.S. forces sealed off a house in the northern city of Mosul where eight suspected al-Qaida members died in a gunfight _ some by their own hand to avoid capture. A U.S. official said Sunday that efforts were under way to determine if terror leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was among the dead.

Let's see, hopefully true...

[GorTex6]

One way to tell- he is covered in tattoos.

[Bill Moore]

Military spokesman are rightfully playing down the report, because it if it becomes big news and is later refuted it will continue to build his reputation in Islamist world.

However, if this turns out to be true, we need need to reconvene on-line and have a virtual toast to our troops. I for one will have a real beer.

[SWJED]

21 Nov. Washington Post - Officials Probing Whether Raid in Mosul Killed Zarqawi.

An Iraqi police commander said Sunday that U.S. and Iraqi officials were certain that seven men who fought to the death in a house in northern Iraq were members of al Qaeda but were still trying to determine whether one of them was Abu Musab Zarqawi, the Jordanian insurgent leader.

U.S. and Iraqi forces remained deployed around the site of the three-hour gunfight Saturday at a house in the city of Mosul, north of Baghdad. Children stayed home from class on Sunday, a school day in the Islamic world, and other residents kept off the streets, presumably fearing that more fighting might result from the heavy military presence in the city.

[GorTex6]

Al-Qaeda unfazed by raid

[SWJED]

22 Nov. Washington Post - Mosul Raid Missed Zarqawi, U.S. Says.

A massive raid on a house in northern Iraq where insurgent leader Abu Musab Zarqawi was said to be hiding failed to capture or kill him, U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said Monday.

I do not believe that we got him. But his days are numbered," he told reporters. "We're closer to that goal, but unfortunately we didn't get him in Mosul."