Posted on 05/25/2005 10:32:22 PM PDT by Wiz
CAIRO, Egypt - The Internet and Baghdad streets are teeming with statements about terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. One says he's being treated outside Iraq for gunshot wounds to the lung. Another calls on Muslims to pray for him, indicating his condition may be dire.
Only one thing is sure: none is confirmed.
The latest furor over al-Zarqawi began Tuesday when an Internet statement called on Muslims to pray for his life, followed by competing statements on his health and whereabouts.
The mystery deepened Wednesday after reports that two Arab doctors in another country were treating al-Zarqawi, chief of al-Qaida in Iraq and wanted for some of the deadliest attacks in the country.
None of the Internet postings and rumors have been confirmed, but the amount of speculation about the Jordanian-born militant is unusual both in size and scope.
"It makes me wonder if al-Zarqawi's injury is severe enough that they are afraid to lie about it, and are instead just trying to minimalize the impact," said Washington-based counterterrorism expert Evan Kohlmann. "In other words, they 'steal the thunder' from the Western media ... a crude form of defusing a potential public relations disaster."
It also could be a ploy to make al-Zarqawi more popular among Islamic zealots who follow him and his mentor, Osama bin Laden.
A return to the battlefield after being injured by U.S. forces could make al-Zarqawi look like "superman," Gen. Wafiq al-Samarie, the Iraqi presidential adviser for security affairs, speculated on Al-Jazeera TV.
The attention focused on his reputed injury indicates how crucial al-Zarqawi has become to Iraq's insurgency. He initially was regarded as a bin Laden rival until the al-Qaida leader anointed him his representative in Iraq last year.
Al-Zarqawi, who carries a $25 million bounty like bin Laden, is believed to have personally executed foreign hostages and has shown no compunction in killing Muslims who don't adhere to his hard-line interpretation of Islam. He also encourages bloody attacks against anyone deemed a U.S. collaborator.
Speculation over his condition heightened when an Internet statement said two Arab doctors in another country were treating him. After being posted on another Web site, it was denounced as being unauthorized and false.
The statement from someone identified only as al-Khalidi said the information came from "brothers close to the holy warriors in Iraq."
At the United Nations, Syria's Ambassador Fayssal Mekdad denied any Syrian involvement with al-Zarqawi.
"These are silly rumor made by enemies of Syria — those who want to distort the image of Syria and its efforts to eliminate international terrorism," Mekdad said. "This is meant to damage also the relations between Syria and Iraq, and the contribution of Syria to the Iraqi struggle against dictatorship."
The spokesman for Iraq's largest Shiite political group said it had unconfirmed information that al-Zarqawi was dead.
"He was killed in western Iraq," said Haitham al-Husseini, an aide to Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, head of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq. "But we need more time to be able to confirm."
Hani el-Sibaie, who runs a London-based Islamic affairs research center, said calls to pray for al-Zarqawi meant he was seriously ill. "It is obvious that he is dying and his days are numbered," he said from London.
Recent U.S. and Iraqi raids on hospitals in Baghdad and Ramadi, west of the capital, have fueled the rumors.
Marine Col. Stephen Davis, who is commanding an anti-insurgent offensive in the western Iraqi city of Haditha, told CNN that if reports al-Zarqawi was wounded or possibly dead were true, "it probably will have some impact, although I suspect that impact may be shorter term."
"He was killed in western Iraq," said Haitham al-Husseini, an aide to Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, head of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq. "But we need more time to be able to confirm."
Wow. If SCIRI is leaking this, there may be something up more than we think. More to come, I assume.
He's probably faking his death so he can setup operations somewhere else. I'll believe it when I see a body.
(Sorry; I'm not usually this morbid, but an eye-for-an-eye seems justified here...)
COOL Dude is on my dead pool
Hey OLDSarge I hear he got shot in the lung according to Wash Post in Thursday run
In Iraq, a text message was circulating on mobile phones celebrating the injury and congratulating whoever had inflicted it.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4579885.stm
LOL
I wonder if he was shot by our troops, or if he was hurt in a Newsweek riot.
He isn't dead until I see the fat virgin sing.
bttt
He was killed - We need more time to confirm....
Sounds like someone is not too sure.
If true also sounds like Operation Matador was a roaring success.
Bring me the head...
I was kinda hoping for a weeping gutshot that would painfully incapacitate but not quite kill him, preferably out in the desert near a big anthill.
But you can't have everything, so I'll take a lung shot, especially if it involves a lot of coughing.
I hope he gets an infection in his lungs and has a slow agonizing death.
(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)
I will pray heartily that the Lord delivers justice upon al Zarqawi. How He does that is His business.
He's just resting...
Yeah, when all you have is Muslim rumors to go on, the truth is usually the opposite of what they're saying. Muslims don't trust each other, and for a very good reason.
I've heard the same thing, but can't confirm it.
No, no, he's stuned. Yeah! The Marines stuned his beeber just as he was wkaing up!
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