Posted on 11/20/2005 4:38:59 PM PST by West Coast Conservative
US authorities are looking into whether al-Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed in a gunfight in Mosul, a US official says.
But a White House spokesman said al-Zarqawi's death was "highly unlikely."
"Efforts are under way to determine whether Zarqawi wasamong those killed," the US official, in Washington said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
White House spokesman Trent Duffy, travelling with US President George W Bush in Asia, said the report was "highly unlikely and not credible."
US forces had sealed off the house in the northern city of Mosul where eight suspected al-Qaeda members died in a gunfight - some by their own hand to avoid capture.
Insurgents, meanwhile, killed an American soldier and a Marine in separate attacks over the weekend, while a British soldier was killed by a roadside bomb in the south.
In Washington, a US official said the identities of the terror suspects killed was unknown. Asked if they could include al-Zarqawi, the official replied: "There are efforts under way to determine if he was killed."
American soldiers maintained control of the site, imposing extraordinary security measures, a day after a fierce gunbattle that broke out when Iraqi police and US soldiers surrounded a house after reports that al-Qaeda in Iraq members were inside.
Three insurgents detonated explosives and killed themselves to avoid capture, Iraqi officials said. Eleven Americans were wounded, according to the US military.
(Excerpt) Read more at smh.com.au ...
I'm hoping the issue will be raised at a DoD briefing tomorrow (assuming that there will be one tomorrow).
Calm down...
we have another one of those GREAT anonymous sources saying something before the testing is even done.
I personally doubt we got him either, but I will take it if we can get it. I just can't believe that the guy has been on the run for nearly 3 years now and would be caught relatively easily.
Helen Thomas' tongue?
That's gonna leave a mark!
I'm not giving up either. :-) Still hoping and praying.
His relatives in Jordan.
1) Because the POTUS is the Commander-in-Chief of the military.
2) Because a press corps would have to be grossly incompetent not to question White House staff about rumors such as these.
"White House spokesman Trent Duffy"
on loan from the Kennedy School of Government...
The source was not anonymous - it was Trent Duffy from the White House.
Some say Zarkey died in a swordfight. Classic grabassticism..
where are you reading that this was "easy"?
We have been chasing this guy for damn near 3 years.
To roll him up in a raid would be seen as "easy" compared to an operation like that which happened to nab him in Fallujah last year.
Fewer resources involved, relatively confined objective = Easy
Maybe we did set this up on purpose to elicit a response from him as a way to pin him down and zero in on him.
you expected we would get him in Fallujah last year? we were dropping leaflets days before the assault.
Zarqawi would have to travel in a very small circle of people - he cannot have some huge security detail surrounding him, and moving with him in convoy like manner when he moves, it would be too obvious. while this may not be him, I suspect that a takedown like this is the manner in which we would get him - a single safe house, a small number of people, of whom he is one of them.
no I didn't.
I actually expected that the Iraqis would get him.
The guy has nearly been gotten many times. He was in a car when he hit a checkpoint and had to run.
We got a piece of him in an air raid.
Someone (either Iraqi or a US troop) shot him....
too me, this just sounds too easy. If I'm wrong, then I'm wrong and I'll take being wrong any day of the week, but I don't think that I am.
You forgot your sarcasm button. I especially laughed at the comment referencing Helen Thomas' tongue. ROTFLMAO!
But don't you find it the least bit strange that Duffy didn't say that tests are ongoing, or refused to comment on it? In the previous times when Zarqawi was reportedly killed, I don't recall the White House saying that it was very unlikely to be true. It seems like the White House is trying to lower expectations. Which is what you want if Zarqawi was in fact killed, because you want to see if his other associates try to contact him, before you announce his death.
Let me just say that that White House spokespeople deceive the American people frequently. I'm taking this more as spin than a real evaluation of the situation in Mosul.
why comment on something they don't have first rate information on anyway? You said that yourself.
The WH is rather well connected to both the Intel services and the military commanders in Iraq. If there is doubt coming out of the WH, then it's probably based in a large part to what information they have obtained from those channels.
Okay, understood.
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