| Groundhog |
05-04-2006 07:40 PM |
al-Qaeda's Abu Musab al-Zarqawi pwned
Quote:
US 'homing in' on Zarqawi
From: Agence France-Presse By Terry Friel and Omar al-Ibadi
May 05, 2006
The US military said overnight that it was hot on the heels of the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, after discovering documents and an unedited video of him in a rural hideout near Baghdad.
Zarqawi was throwing all his resources into attacks in Baghdad and was probably somewhere south of the capital where US forces recently launched a series of raids, US military spokesman Major-General Rick Lynch said.
"We believe it is only a matter of time until Zarqawi is taken down. It's not if, but when," he said.
"Zarqawi is zooming in on Baghdad, we are zooming in on Zarqawi."
A roadside bomb killed nine people and wounded 46 near a Baghdad courthouse yesterday as Prime Minister-designate Nuri al-Maliki met political blocs on the formation of a unity government Washington hopes will avert a sectarian civil war.
Dazed victims were taken to hospital, where they recalled hearing an explosion after entering the courthouse.
"I went inside. The explosion happened 15 minutes later. Some were saying that it was a suicide bomber with an explosives vest. Others were saying it was a bomb on a cart pulled by a horse," Abdul Mohsen Jassim said.
General Lynch showed brief clips from what he said was an unedited copy of a video Zarqawi released last week, showing the al-Qaeda leader wearing American running shoes, struggling to handle a machine gun and handing the weapon to one of his aides, who appears to fumble with it as he grabs the gun's hot muzzle.
In the version Zarqawi posted on the Internet and that aired on television, Zarqawi is seen poring over maps, receiving battle reports and firing bursts from an automatic weapon in a video in which he warned of more attacks.
But at his weekly media briefing, General Lynch mocked Zarqawi for wearing sneakers and suggested he was unable to fire a weapon.
"What he didn't show you were the clips that I showed you," said the General. "Wearing New Balance sneakers with his uniform, surrounded by supposedly competent subordinates who grab the hot barrel of a just-fired machine gun, ... a warrior leader, Zarqawi, who doesn't understand how to operate his weapons system. "It makes you wonder."
Mr Maliki has promised to form a government that will stabilise Iraq by sharing power among Shiites, Kurds and Sunni Arabs.
Mr Maliki, from the dominant Shiite Islamist Alliance, has until May 22 to present a Cabinet to Parliament, a month after his nomination that ended months of political stalemate.
Mr Maliki has said he may need only two weeks and several negotiators said they were looking to a possible deal next week.
Iraqi politicians involved in negotiations said on Wednesday an agreement on the top five ministries was close.
"The Alliance is insisting on the oil ministry, the Kurds are insisting on the foreign ministry and we in the Accordance Front want the finance portfolio," Sunni politician Saleem al-Jubouri said overnight.
Leaders from the Alliance were expected to hold talks with a secular bloc headed by former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, a pro-American Shiite. Some Shiite officials said his group was likely to win control of the Ministry of Defence.
Sectarian violence has exploded since the February bombing of a Shi'ite shrine touched off reprisals and pushed Iraq closer to a full-blown communal conflict.
Qais Hassan, deputy director of the Baghdad city morgue, said the facility receives an average of between 35 and 50 bodies a day. He said 90 per cent had gunshot wounds, likely victims of sectarian violence.
Iraqi leaders hoped the participation of Sunni Arab leaders in the political process for the first time in December elections would undermine Sunni insurgents waging a campaign of bombings and shootings to topple the Shiite-led Government.
But the violence goes on.
Iraqi police said overnight that they found the bodies of two strangled people on Wednesday inside a sack in a road between Baghdad and Hilla, 100 km south of Baghdad.
In Baghdad's Yarmouk district, gunmen yesterday killed Muhammed Ridha, a brigadier in the Defence Ministry.
And in the kind of incident that fuels resentment towards the Iraqi Government and its American allies, Iraqi doctors and neighbours in the Sunni city of Ramadi accused US troops of killing children in a missile strike but the military said no civilians, only eight insurgents, were killed.
Local television footage showed the body of a boy lying in the rubble of a house. Hospital and police officials gave death tolls ranging from five to 13, with up to another 15 wounded.
|
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117...52-401,00.html
ROFL!!!1!! Nice shootign n00b!!!11! |
