Posted on 05/25/2005 9:47:24 PM PDT by Deetes
BAGHDAD, May 25 -- Insurgents said Wednesday in interviews and statements on the Internet that the leader of the group al Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Musab Zarqawi, was struggling with a gunshot wound to the lung. One of Zarqawi's commanders said the Jordanian guerrilla was receiving oxygen, heightening suspicion that the groundwork was being laid for an announcement of his replacement or death.
In the volatile western province of Anbar, meanwhile, U.S. Marines clashed with gunmen in their second major offensive there this month. A combined U.S. and Iraqi force of roughly 1,000 troops killed 10 insurgents as it began a sweep of Haditha, the U.S. military said. The offensive followed an increase in insurgent attacks on Marines posted at a dam near that small city, 125 miles northwest of Baghdad.
Among the 10 dead fighters was a man identified by residents as a Muslim cleric who was shot as he fired on troops with an AK-47 assault rifle, the U.S. military said in a statement.
On the second day of reporting about Zarqawi's condition, insurgents offered no tangible evidence that he had suffered a potentially fatal wound. Some of Zarqawi's rank-and-file fighters and one of his top lieutenants have said he was wounded in an ambush by U.S. Marines and Iraqi forces over the weekend around the western city of Ramadi. A U.S. military official, Lt. Col. David Lapan, said Wednesday that he had found no record of such an ambush.
The insurgents' accounts suggested that steady U.S. and Iraqi military pressure was taking a toll on Zarqawi's group. In an interview Tuesday, the Zarqawi lieutenant, Abu Karrar, said his group was weighing both foreigners and Iraqis as possible successors to Zarqawi if he died.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Steamroll these sons of bitches.
probably shot by one of his own people .....
if it had been our shooters , they would have popped his grape.
We just won't be giving him back.
Washpost zarq pinger !!!
Pray for W and Our Troops
Religion of ...?
(Among the 10 dead fighters was a man identified by residents as a Muslim cleric who was shot as he fired on troops with an AK-47 assault rifle)
The Religion of Peace strikes again!
Don't trust, verify and then verify again..
I hope he's lying there gasping for breath and choking on his own blood. If cutting his head off isn't an option, a slow, agonizing death is a good compromise.
If he was shot, may he suffer a long and painful demise.
I wish instead of all these reports of injuries and captures of "high aides" to Al-Zarqawi that some unit of Allied Forces
would produce his dead carcass.
Yeah, probably cleaning their AK's and oooppss... Lung shot.. That is if any of this is true. It sure is getting alot of ink....
If there's any justice he will suffocate on his own blood. A slow painful death would be too good for the dirtbag.
I wanna shoot him in the other lung.
Not going to bother reading the article. Same crap, different day.
You'd settle for his head on a platter, wouldn't you?
He is probably pulling a Jack Bauer (24) stunt - play dead to escape.
Don't believe anything from the media.
Yes! A slow death would be wonderful!
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