Series of Raids: U.S. Troops Hunt al-Qaeda in Iraq 
'Pakistan Times' Foreign Desk

BAGHDAD (Iraq): U.S. troops conducted 39 raids early Friday and late on Thursday based on information gleaned from searches in the hours after Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's death.

Fearing that insurgents will seek revenge, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki imposed driving bans in Baghdad and in restive Diyala province, where the terrorist was killed.

Terrorist leader al-Zarqawi was still alive and mumbling after U.S. airstrikes on his hideout and tried to get off a stretcher when he saw American troops nearby, a top military official said Friday.

The al-Qaida leader could barely speak when Iraqi police arrived at the scene of Wednesday's attack.

"He mumbled something, but it was indistinguishable and it was very short," U.S. military spokesman Maj. Gen. William Caldwell said at a news conference.

Later, U.S. and Polish forces intending to provide unspecified medical treatment put al-Zarqawi on a stretcher, Caldwell said. The terrorist "attempted to sort of turn away off the stretcher, everybody reached to insert him back. ... He died a short time later from the wounds suffered during the air strike.

"We did in fact see him alive," Caldwell said. "There was some sort of movement he had on the stretcher and he did die a short time later. There was confirmation from the Iraqi police that he was found alive."

Caldwell said it was unclear whether al-Zarqawi was trying to get away as he made movement on the stretcher.

But earlier, in an interview with Fox News, Caldwell suggested that al-Zarqawi was trying to escape in the final moments of his life.

"He was conscious initially, according to the U.S. forces that physically saw him," Caldwell said. "He obviously had some kind of visual recognition of who they were because he attempted to roll off the stretcher, as I am told, and get away, realizing it was the U.S. military.

U.S. Gen. George Casey, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, said at the time that the American airstrike targeted "an identified, isolated safe house." Four other people, including a woman and a child, were killed with al-Zarqawi and Abu Abdul-Rahman al-Iraqi, the terrorist's spiritual consultant.

Revising what military officials said Thursday, Caldwell said it now appears there was no child among those killed in the bombing. He cautioned that some facts were still being sorted out.

He said three women and three men, including al-Zarqawi, were killed.
Hours after al-Zarqawi's death, U.S. troops carried out 17 simultaneous raids Wednesday around the location of his safe house near Baqouba, the capital of Diyala province.

The region is in the heartland of the Sunni Arab-led insurgency and has seen a recent rise in sectarian violence. Baqouba is 35 miles northeast of Baghdad.

Those raids provided the information leading to the searches overnight on Thursday.

In the 39 raids, troops "picked up things like memory sticks, some hard drives" that would allow American forces to begin dismantling al-Zarqawi's al-Qaida in Iraq, Caldwell told the British Broadcasting Corp.

He said the latest information was helping U.S. forces unravel the source of al-Qaida's weapons and financing.

In announcing al-Zarqawi's death, Caldwell said the 17 raids "produced a tremendous amount of information," which he described as a "treasure trove." He also said they waited to kill al-Zarqawi before carrying out the other raids, in an apparent effort not to spook the Jordanian-born terrorist.

"We had identified other targets that we obviously did not go after to allow us to focus on al-Zarqawi. Now that we got him, we will go after them," Caldwell told the BBC.

As Iraqi and U.S. leaders cautioned that al-Zarqawi's death was not likely to end the bloodshed in Iraq, Caldwell said another foreign-born militant was already poised to take over the terror network's operations.

He said Egyptian-born Abu al-Masri would likely take the reins of al-Qaida in Iraq. He said al-Masri trained in Afghanistan and arrived in Iraq in 2002 to establish an al-Qaida cell.

The U.S. military did not further identify al-Masri and his real identity could not immediately be determined. But the Central Command has listed an Abu Ayyub al-Masri as among its most wanted al-Zarqawi associates and placed a $50,000 bounty on his head.

Al-Masri, whose name is an obvious alias meaning "father of the Egyptian," is believed to be an expert at constructing roadside bombs, the leading cause of U.S. military casualties in Iraq.

The midday driving ban in Baghdad lasted four hours. All traffic was banned in Diyala from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. for three days starting Friday.

The Baghdad ban fell during the times that most Iraqis go to mosques for Friday prayers. Bombers have been known to target Shiite mosques during the weekly religious services with suicide attackers and mortars hidden in vehicles.

Vehicle Ban

Iraqi authorities imposed the vehicle ban as a security measure "to protect mosques and prayers from any possible terrorist attacks, especially car bombs, in the wake off yesterday's event," an official from the prime minister's office said, referring to al-Zarqawi's death. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to media.

Al-Zarqawi, who had a $25 million bounty on his head, was killed at 6:15 p.m. Wednesday after an intense two-week hunt that U.S. officials said first led to the terror leader's spiritual adviser and then to him.

The U.S. military earlier had displayed images of the battered face of al-Zarqawi and reported that he had been identified by fingerprints, tattoos and scars.

Biological samples from his body also were delivered to an FBI crime laboratory in Virginia for DNA testing. The results were expected in three days.

Caldwell said Friday that authorities made a visual identification of al-Zarqawi upon arriving at the site of the airstrike.

Perspective

A mortally wounded Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, still alive after a U.S. airstrike on his hideout, mumbled briefly and attempted to "turn away off the stretcher" he had been placed on by Iraqi police, the U.S. military said Friday.

U.S. officials had said Thursday in announcing the attack that Zarqawi was dead when U.S. troops arrived on the scene.

Maj. Gen. Bill Caldwell, speaking to reporters at the Pentagon from his post in Baghdad, said he learned after getting briefings Friday that Zarqawi was alive when Iraqi police first arrived on the scene, but he died a short time later.

"We did in fact see him alive," Caldwell said. "He mumbled a little something but it was indistinguishable and it was very short."

Caldwell said U.S. forces have conducted many raids over the past two days based on intelligence gathered from the scene of Zarqawi's killing. He displayed several digital photographs taken from the results of one such raid, which found small arms, ammunition and other items hidden beneath the floor of a building in the Baghdad area.

He said one targeted individual, whom he did not identify, was killed in the latest raids and at least 25 were captured.

Asked whether Zarqawi was shot after U.S. ground troops arrived at the scene of the airstrike, Caldwell said he could not give a definitive answer based on what he had read in the latest official U.S. military report on the event. "I'll go back and specifically ask that," he said.

"But no, there was nothing in the report that said he had received any wounds from some kind of weapons system like that."

Zarqawi's safehouse was destroyed by two 500-pound bombs launched from an Air Force F-16 on Wednesday evening.

Caldwell said the U.S. military was still compiling some details of the event, including the exact amount of time Zarqawi was alive after the attack. He said an initial analysis of Zarqawi's body had been done but he was not certain whether it constituted a full autopsy.

"I know that there was, quote, an autopsy done, but I'll go back and make sure it was performed by the certified kind of person that we're supposed to have so we can call it an autopsy and make sure I'm exactly correct before I tell you that," he said.

In an interview earlier Friday with Fox News Channel, Caldwell was more descriptive of Zarqawi's actions before he died.

"He was conscious initially, according to the U.S. forces that physically saw him," Caldwell told Fox. "He obviously had some kind of visual recognition of who they were because he attempted to roll off the stretcher, as I am told, and get away, realizing it was U.S. military."

Caldwell indicated that U.S. troops "went into the process to provide medical care to him" before Zarqawi expired. He did not elaborate on the medical assistance. He said U.S. officials are in discussions with Iraqi government officials about the disposition of Zarqawi's body.

The spokesman also provided a revised accounting of the dead. He said the six people killed in the airstrike included three women.

On Thursday U.S. officials had said one woman and one child were among the dead. Caldwell said Friday the latest information available to him gave no indication that a child was killed.

The U.S. military earlier had displayed images of the battered face of al-Zarqawi and reported that he had been identified by fingerprints, tattoos and scars. Biological samples from his body also were delivered to an FBI crime laboratory in Virginia for DNA testing. The results were expected in three days.

Caldwell said Friday that authorities made a visual identification of al-Zarqawi upon arriving at the site of the airstrike.

"Zarqawi attempted to sort of turn away off the stretcher, everybody resecured him back onto the stretcher but he died almost immediately thereafter from the wounds he'd received from this airstrike," Caldwell said.

Caldwell said it was unclear whether Zarqawi was trying to get away as he made movement on the stretcher.

"We did in fact see him alive," Caldwell said. "There was some kind of movement he had on the stretcher and he did die shortly thereafter. But yes, it was confirmed by other than the Iraqi police that he was alive initially."

Al-Zarqawi, who had a $25 million bounty on his head, was killed at 6:15 p.m. Wednesday after an intense two-week hunt that U.S. officials said first led to the terror leader's spiritual adviser and then to him.

U.S. Gen. George Casey, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, said at the time that the American airstrike targeted "an identified, isolated safe house."

Also killed in the airstrike was Abu Abdul-Rahman al-Iraqi, the terrorist's spiritual consultant.

Recap

To recap the earlier story on Al-Qaida-linked Bellicose Zarqawi's death by 'Pakistan Times' [Daily Web Newspaper] in its' edition of Friday, June-9, Click here;

http://www.pakistantimes.net/2006/06/09/top.htm●