Zarqawi Is Dead

I'm at work so I can't write a whole lot on the news of Zarqawi's death but I will tell everyone to enjoy a happy Zarqawi's Dead day!

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Al Qaeda in Iraq leader who led a brutal insurgency that included homicide bombings, kidnappings and beheadings, was killed in an airstrike on a building north of Baghdad, U.S. and Iraqi officials announced Thursday.

Officials said the terror leader's identity was confirmed by fingerprints, facial recognition and known scars.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki said Zarqawi was killed along with seven aides Wednesday evening at around 6:15 p.m. local time in a bombing raid on a building in a remote area 30 miles northeast of Baghdad in Diyala province.

Loud applause broke out at a press conference in Baghdad as Al-Maliki, flanked by U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad and U.S. Gen. George Casey, the top commander in Iraq, announced that "Zarqawi was terminated."

U.S. President George W. Bush said Zarqawi's death "is a severe blow to Al Qaeda and it is a significant victory in the war on terror."

The details:

At a press conference in Baghdad, Maj. Gen. William Caldwell showed a photograpgh of Zarqawi's body and video of U.S. F-16's dropping two 500-pound bombs on the house near Baqouba.

"The days of Zarqawi are over," Gen. Caldwell said. "Iraqis can take great pride in this achievement."

[…]A Jordanian official said that Jordan also provided the U.S. military with information that helped in tracking Zarqawi down. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was addressing intelligence issues, would not elaborate, but Jordan is known to have intelligence agents operating in Iraq to hunt down Islamic militants.

Some of the information came from Jordan's sources inside Iraq and led the U.S. military to the area of Baqouba, the official said.

Curt

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