The United States has killed terrorist sleader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Al-Zarqawi was intimately involved in the day-to-day operations of Al-Qaeda and has been a target for United States forces since the beginning of the Iraq War.
US General George Casey, the top US commander in Iraq, made the announcement this morning.
Coalition forces killed al-Qaida terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and one of his key lieutenants, spiritual adviser sheik Abdel-Rahman, yesterday, June 7, at about 6:15 in the evening. This happened in an airstrike which was conducted against an identified, isolated safe house.
A big part of this story is that he may have been given up by his own people -- possibly an internal power struggle in Al Qaeda.
And before you get your conspiracy theories going, yes, this was al Zarqawi.
Zarqawi's lifeless body was immediately recognizable to those at the house, Caldwell said, and the discovery of tattoos and scars that he was known to have confirmed the identification. Fingerprint tests returned a 100 percent match, and results from DNA testing are expected within the next day or two, Caldwell said.
This headline could have come many times in the past, including before the Iraq War
The United States deliberately passed up repeated opportunities to kill the head of al-Qaeda in Iraq, Jordanian-born terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, before the March 2003 US-led invasion of that country.
and also again, the Americans had Zarqawi in custody before he was mistakenly released. Apparently they didn't recognize the terrorist leader. Meanwhile there are very probably people who are being held in various US jails without trial that are innocent.
This is a huge victory against terrorism, but don't be surprised if insurgent attacks don't end right away; every article points out that Zarqawi set up autonomous terror cells. In fact, a blast rocked Iraq mere hours after Zarqawi's death.
There will need to be many more victories before we can safely exit Iraq.
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I dont want to call it as a huge victory against terrorism. Why? For me, the real and huge victory against terror is to capture Osama Bin Ladin. So this, yes it's a good news but it's just a small victory.
Because Zarqawi is, as I said, intimately involved in the day to day operations of Al Qaeda in Iraq. Seeing as our war in Iraq has turne dIraq into the biggest terrorism training ground ... this makes Zarqawi a very important figure in terrorism
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There is nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come.
Sure it may be a victory...but it seems quite hypocritical of the US to be flashing this guy's picture on the news ever 5 minutes and talking about it as such.
Doesn't it sound similar to what the terrorists do when Americans were killed on 911? They flashed the pictures all over the place calling it a great Victory.
Quite the parallel. I'm not trying to be anti-American. I just think that if we want to show the world we're a better country then run the story once the day it happens and the next day in the newspaper and let it be done...let's stop talking about it.
I don't blame this on our government....it's the News. They can't find anything really newsworthy to report that might make our lives better so they run the same story every 5 minutes on CNN.