Posted on 06/09/2006 7:19:15 AM PDT by prairiebreeze
A mortally wounded Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was still alive and mumbling on a gurney when Iraqi police arrived at the site bombed by U.S. forces there, a top American military spokesman said Friday.
Maj. Gen. Bill Caldwell, briefing military reporters at the Pentagon from his post in Baghdad, said he learned that al-Zarqawi was alive after getting briefings on the military operation that netted al-Zarqawi and several others.
"He mumbled something but it was indistinguishable and it was very short," Caldwell said.
The U.S. military earlier had displayed images of the battered face of al-Zarqawi and reported that he had been identified by fingerprints, tattoos and scars. Biological samples from his body also were delivered to an FBI crime laboratory in Virginia for DNA testing. The results were expected in three days.
Caldwell said Friday that authorities made a visual identification of al-Zarqawi upon arriving at the site of the airstrike.
He said that when the terrorist "attempted to sort of turn away off the stretcher, everybody resecured him back onto the stretcher. ... He died almost immediately thereafter from the wounds he'd received from this airstrike."
"We did in fact see him alive," Caldwell said. "There was some sort of movement he had on the stretcher and he did die a short time later. There was confirmation from the Iraqi police that he was found alive."
The story was first reported by Fox News Channel's "Fox and Friends."
Al-Zarqawi, who had a $25 million bounty on his head, was killed at 6:15 p.m. Wednesday after an intense two-week hunt that U.S. officials said first led to the terror leader's spiritual adviser and then to him.
U.S. Gen. George Casey, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, said at the time that the American airstrike targeted "an identified, isolated safe house." Four other people, including a woman and a child, were killed with al-Zarqawi and Abu Abdul-Rahman al-Iraqi, the terrorist's spiritual consultant.
Caldwell said it was unclear whether al-Zarqawi was trying to get away as he writhed around on his stretcher.
Revising what military officials said Thursday, Caldwell said it now appears there was no child among those killed in the bombing. He cautioned that some facts were still being sorted out.
He said three women and three men, including al-Zarqawi, were killed.
"Damn, that hurt."
I'm glad he was alive for a short while.
I hope the period was just long enough for him to feel a great deal of pain and to realize the the US military had indeed nailed his ass to the wall.
I hope he was alive long enough to hear someone say "President Bush sends his regards"
Hopefully, Lorena Bobbitt was there before he died to take a certain biological sample for testing.
I hope he was alive long enough to hear someone say "President Bush sends his regards"
You betcha....and that he suffered for those few remaing minutes...I hope it felt like a lifetime!!!!
Oh yes. Me too.
Good. He died knowing.
Doug, you're assuming that he had one to begin with.
"What good are 72 virgins when YOU BLEW MY NADS OFF??"
Did you see the reporter asking if we cared for him? If we gave him mouth to mouth? I think she was concerned for the f***er's health not for the intelligence we could have gotten.
Everytime I see young Nick Berg...(who was my son's age & resembles him somewhat in the infamous pictures they keep showing)...
...I remember WHY yesterday was complete euphoria for me!---Zarqawi is really dead this time!
Great "resecure" job! I'm glad our boys learned to do it properly.
BTTT!
His last words: "I hope this doesn't hurt Democrats in the mid-term elections."
"Rosebud."
Candygram for al-Zarqawi! Candygram for al-Zarqawi!
I hope no one put women's knickers on his head!
LOL!
Maybe it was one of Emeril's lines (No, NOT "Pork Fat Rules")....BAM !
No wonder he nasty attitude.
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