Congratulations to our military who were able to end the reign of terror caused by this mass murder:
BAGHDAD, Iraq – Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the most-wanted terrorist in
Iraq who waged a bloody campaign of beheadings and suicide bombings, was killed when U.S. warplanes dropped 500-pound bombs on his isolated safehouse, officials said Thursday. His death was a long-sought victory in the war in Iraq.
Al-Zarqawi and several aides, including spiritual adviser Sheik Abdul Rahman, were killed Wednesday evening in a remote area 30 miles from Baghdad in the volatile province of Diyala, just east of the provincial capital of Baqouba, officials said.
[…]
Al-Zarqawi is believed to have beheaded two Americans – Nicholas Berg of West Chester, Pa., and Eugene Armstrong, formerly of Hillsdale, Mich. – prompting supporters to dub him “the slaughtering sheik.”
[…]
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was addressing intelligence issues, would not elaborate, but Jordan is known to have agents operating in Iraq to hunt down Islamic militants.
[…]
It was not clear to American authorities who would succeed al-Zarqawi as the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq. The official noted that a number of al-Zarqawi’s deputies have been taken out in recent months, which could cause chaos among the group’s top tier.
Caldwell said an Egyptian-born man he identified as Abu al-Masri will probably take over al-Qaida in Iraq.
[…]
Al-Zarqawi’s oversaw a wave of kidnappings of foreigners and the killings of at least a dozen, including Arab diplomats and three Americans. He also was a master Internet propagandist, spreading the call for Islamic extremists to join the “jihad,” or holy war, in Iraq. His group posted gruesome images of beheadings, speeches by al-Zarqawi and recruitment videos depicting the planning and execution of its most daring attacks.
Thank the Lord this man was finally killed.
It’s interesting that Jordan is involved in hunting down terrorists, I wasn’t aware of that.
Updated to add: This is just ridiculousus statement:
“I don’t think that Zarqawi is himself responsible for the killings of hundreds of thousands of people in Iraq,” Berg said in a combative television interview with the U.S. Fox News network. “I think George Bush is.
“George Bush is the one that invaded this country, George Bush is the one that destabilized it so that Zarqawi could get in, so that Zarqawi had a need to get in, to defend his region of the country from American invaders.”
This is the man who killed your son and probably hundreds of others (maybe thousands) and yet you are focused on Bush? That’s just nuts.
And he is wrong about Bush letting Zarqawi into Iraq, he was in Iraq before the war:
In June 2002, U.S. officials say intelligence had revealed that Zarqawi and members of al-Qaida had set up a weapons lab at Kirma, in northern Iraq, producing deadly ricin and cyanide.
Updated to add: Yech! Yahoo seems to have replaced the article that I linked to earlier today with a picture of a dead Zarqawi. Not a pretty picture. But some interesting new details:
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.
Huh, that’s interesting. I thought there wasn’t any al-Qaida in Iraq before the war. (That was me being sarcastic again).