Painstaking intelligence work led to Zarqawi By Mussab Al-Khairalla
10 minutes ago
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Painstaking intelligence gathering and sources inside Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's network enabled U.S. forces to pinpoint his location and kill the al Qaeda leader in Iraq, the U.S. military said on Thursday.
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A U.S. Air Force F-16C Fighting Falcon fighter aircraft dropped two 500-pound (227 kg) bombs on a house in a date-palm grove in a village north of Baghdad, killing the most-wanted man in Iraq, said Lt. Gen. Gary North, the top air commander in the region.
Maj. Gen. William Caldwell told a news conference it took detailed planning before the attack, and a breakthrough came while U.S. forces were trailing Zarqawi's spiritual adviser, Sheikh Abdul-Rahman.
"This gentleman was key to our success in finding Zarqawi. He was a top lieutenant of his and was identified several weeks ago by military sources and sources inside Zarqawi's network," Caldwell said.
"Through painstaking intelligence efforts we were able to start tracking him, monitoring his movements. ... Last night, he went to meet (Zarqawi) again at 6:15 p.m. (1415 GMT) when the decision was made to go ahead and strike that target," he added.
North, briefing Pentagon reporters by telephone from Qatar, said two F-16s were involved in the mission, but only one dropped bombs -- a laser-guided GBU-12 and satellite-guided GBU-38 Joint Direct Attack Munition, or JDAM.
It was a "medium-altitude attack," North said, without being more specific.
"We had 100-percent assurance that Zarqawi was in the safe house," North said.
The pilots were given the intelligence that led to the attack while they were flying a previously scheduled mission as part of the U.S. military's strategy of keeping aircraft in the sky 24 hours a day, North said.
Zarqawi led Iraq's most-violent insurgent group that had killed thousands of Iraqis through relentless suicide bombings and organized attacks.
Many of the bombings were directed at large crowds of Shi'ites under a strategy U.S. and Iraqi officials said was designed to trigger a civil war.
The former street thug from Jordan remained elusive despite several U.S. military offensives, a $25 million U.S. bounty on his head and the capture of what U.S. officials said were several of his aides.
A SUCCESSOR
Caldwell said an Egyptian militant trained in Afghanistan named Abu al-Masari, who established the first al Qaeda cell in Baghdad, may succeed Zarqawi as head of the group in Iraq.
"What everyone needs to understand is the strike last night did not occur in a 24-hour period."
"It truly was a very long, painstaking, deliberate exploitation of intelligence, information gathering, human sources, electronics, signal intelligence that was done over a period of time, many, many weeks," Caldwell said.
There were six people in the house, including a woman and a child, but only Zarqawi and Abdul-Rahman have been identified. Zarqawi's identification was verified at 0330 Thursday (1130 GMT), Caldwell said.
Forensic experts are conducting a DNA test on Zarqawi and results are expected in 48 hours, he said.
Two photographs of the corpse of the bearded Zarqawi with his eyes shut were displayed at the news conference. His body lay in a pool of blood. His nostrils were filled with blood and there were gashes to his cheek and forehead.
A military video of the strike that killed Zarqawi was also presented.
Caldwell said important information was found at the location that led to 17 simultaneous raids later that night in Baghdad and its outskirts that uncovered a "treasure trove" of information.
(Additional reporting by Will Dunham in Washington)
