US and Iraqi intelligence found al-Zarqawi by following al-Iraqi, who was
seen going into the house shortly before American jets were ordered into action
in the skies 30 miles northeast of Baghdad.
Intelligence officials had identified al-Iraqi several weeks ago with help
from "somebody inside the al-Zarqawi network," Caldwell said.
"Through a painstaking intelligence effort, we were able to start tracking
him, monitor his movements and establish when he was doing his linkup with
al-Zarqawi," he said.
Air Force Lt. Gen. Gary L. North, who commands US and coalition air
operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, said al-Zarqawi's meeting in the house gave
commanders time to gather exact coordinates and redirect the fighters, which
were already in the air.
"We knew exactly where he was and we chose the right moment," North told The
Associated Press.
In the final two weeks of the manhunt, Caldwell indicated US and Iraqi forces
had pinpointed the location of many other key al-Qaida figures but had held off
for fear of spooking their boss. After al-Zarqawi was killed, US and Iraqi
forces carried out 17 raids in the Baghdad region, he said.
What may have partly enabled the success now after so long was Khalilzad's
efforts to patch up relations with Sunnis.
At the same time, the Jordanian-born al-Zarqawi, who was sensitive to
US-encouraged derision of a foreigner killing Iraqis, began cozying up to Sunni
insurgents. It was probably the move that led to his undoing, said Ed O'Connell,
a retired Air Force intelligence officer who led manhunts for Osama bin Laden
and others in Afghanistan, Iraq and Yemen.
"Once that happened, all we needed was a guy inside the insurgency to tell us
where he was and, bam, we got him," he said.
The airstrike occurred in the village of Hibhib, which is known for producing
anise-flavored arak, a popular alcoholic drink.
The region had seen a spike in gruesome sectarian killings in recent days,
including the discovery of 17 severed heads in fruit boxes. Not far away this
week, gunmen killed 21 Shiites, including a dozen students, after separating out
four Sunni Arabs.
Al-Zarqawi was known for his extraordinary brutality as one of the extremist
leaders in the largely Sunni Arab insurgency, earning him the title of "the
slaughtering sheik" among his followers. He is believed to have wielded the huge
knives used in beheading American hostages Nicholas Berg and Eugene Armstrong.
Grisly videos of the slayings were posted on the Internet, part of the
propaganda campaign that was key to al-Zarqawi's movement.
His followers were believed responsible for the deaths of thousands of Iraqi
Shiites, mainly in a campaign of roadside bombings and suicide attacks.
In the past year, he moved his campaign beyond Iraq's borders, claiming to
have carried out a triple suicide bombing against hotels in Amman, Jordan, that
killed 60 people, as well as other attacks in his homeland and even a rocket
attack from Lebanon into Israel.
Caldwell 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.
Buoyed by his announcement of al-Zarqawi's death, al-Maliki won parliamentary
approval for three important ministers - ending a three-week stalemate.
The new defense minister is Army Gen. Abdul-Qader Mohammed Jassim al-Mifarji,
a Sunni Arab, while Shiite Jawad al-Bolani took over the Interior post. The new
minister of state for national security, Sherwan al-Waili, who will advise the
prime minister, also is a Shiite.
Police in Baghdad's Shiite enclave of Sadr City greeted news of al-Zarqawi's
death by firing weapons into the air and chanting in elation.
But al-Zarqawi was mourned in Anbar province.
"This a great loss for all the Sunnis," 40-year-old Abid
al-Duleimi said. "If they killed al-Zarqawi, more than one al-Zarqawi will
replace him."
Zarqawi death won't weaken war - Mullah
Omar
Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar vowed that the killing
in Iraq of al Qaeda militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi would not weaken Muslim
efforts against "crusader forces", a Pakistan-based news agency said on Friday.
In one of the most significant developments in Iraq since the capture of
Saddam Hussein in 2003, Jordanian-born Zarqawi was killed on Wednesday in a U.S.
airstrike on a "safe house" north of Baghdad.
"I give good news to
Muslims around the world, the resistance against the crusader forces in
Afghanistan and other parts of the Islamic world will not be weakened," the
Afghan Islamic Press cited Omar as saying in a statement.
The news
agency did not say how it had obtained the purported statement from the fugitive
Omar who, like al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, is believed to be hiding out
somewhere along the rugged Afghan-Pakistani border.
Zarqawi's killing
will inevitably focus attention on the hunt for bin Laden, nearly five years
after the September 11 attacks on the United States and the subsequent overthrew
of the Taliban government in Afghanistan.
The Taliban have been fighting
U.S. and other foreign troops and the Western-backed Afghan government ever
since.
Bin Laden called Zarqawi, who was in his late 30s, the prince of
al Qaeda in Iraq, and he came to symbolise the radical Islamist insurgency
against U.S. occupation.
Omar said he and "all the brothers of the
sacred resistance movement in Afghanistan" express deep sorrow over the death.
MANY TO FOLLOW
"Zarqawi's martyrdom will not
weaken the resistance movement in Iraq. Many, many more young men can become
Zarqawi," Omar said. "The successors ... can be even stronger than him."
Zarqawi inspired a flood of militants from across the Arab world to blow
themselves up in suicide missions in Iraq.
Afghanistan's Taliban have
copied the tactic, launching a wave of suicide attacks against foreign and
Afghan government troops, and helping push the level of violence in Afghanistan
in recent months to its worst levels since they were ousted.
"As long as
crusader forces continue their attacks on the Islamic world, every young man of
the Ummah (Muslim world) will fight to defend the faith," Omar said.
A
Pakistani security analyst said Zarqawi's death would not weaken the Taliban
insurgency, and could incite more violence.
"I fear revenge killings,
not only in Iraq but maybe in Afghanistan or Pakistan," said author Ahmed
Rashid.
"Zarqawi had following all around the world, there may be action
taken by sympathisers anywhere.
CALL FOR PRAYERS
In Pakistan on Friday, where militants such as Zarqawi and bin Laden
have considerable support, a member of an opposition alliance of Islamist
parties asked the speaker of the lower house of parliament for permission to say
prayers for Zarqawi.
Zarqawi had been fighting for his rights, said the
politician, Farid Ahmed Piracha.
But the speaker, Chaudhry Amir Hussain,
declined the request, switching off Piracha's microphone.
Another member
of the alliance of conservative religious parties asked the speaker to allow
prayers for Zarqawi's spiritual adviser, Sheikh Abdul-Rahman, and others killed
in the airstrike on Zarqawi. Hussain ruled that out.
"There are a number
of people who are martyred around the world and I don't want to create
controversy by allowing prayers," Hussain said.
U.S. Defense Secretary
Donald Rumsfeld told reporters that 10 people, including Zarqawi, had been
killed in the strike on a "safe house" near the city of Baquba, 65 km (40 miles)
north of Baghdad.