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 ...
Me too. Because if the Bush folks seem too enthusiastic, they'll be accused of "hyping the intel in a desperate attempt to boost Bush's sagging poll numbers".
I'm just sitting on the side line waiting to hear any further news. To much speculating. One Arab news paper tells me the whole thing is suspect. And if an Arab reported the whole incident, did he speak with American/Iraqi officers actually running the attack. If not then anything goes. Now if Michael Yon was still there we would have an affirmative if it really happened.
hell yes they would. It's happened before.
what went first?
It was a raid that escalated.
Raids aren't easy to be sure, but this ain't exactly Operation Overlord we are talking here either.
ROFLMAO X 2!
Of course, we did do airstrikes on places we thought Saddam was as the war began, but we didn't really care about having a body. Certaintly not on the night the war began!
They ARE on the same page. The White House is just trying to downplay the event, so hopes are not raised, and to give The President time to get home from his trip abroad to make the announcement, if indeed it is true.
Let's all hope it is........
I'd prefer if they were lesbian hags.....
Did you read the second link that you posted? Coop was the third poster on that thread, and later tried to post another, more credible source.
I think the point is that even the two threads you reference don't make the claim that Z was killed, whether by suicide or in a gunfight (and those two possibilities are not necessarily contradictory - there seems to have been a gunfight, and in its course, three terrorists seem to have committed suicide.) The links suggest that the possibility he was killed is being investigated. Granted that the first link is in French, even if one can't read French (I can't) it is obvious that the American and Iraq forces are trying to verify the truthfulness of rumors.
I agree with Coop, nobody is yet trying to claim that Z is dead, and there is no point to griping about slight conflicts in the information that is out there.
I'd be surprised if Dubya made this announcement (if it's true). He let Bremer do the Hussein capture press conference. I imagine he'd leave this one to Abizaid or Rummy.
It's SPECULATION. Nobody has made those claims except you.
You're nicer than me. (Not that the bar is set particularly high.) :-)
It's "highly unlikely" because the coward wouldn't be involved in a gunfight.
I second your point about White House disinformation.
I support the Administration, but can't true up the DoD and White House accounts. It almost sounds like the WH doesn't want Z gone. Hmmm. Given their attitude about OBL (honestly, between us, is that guy still on the Administration's radar?), that makes sense. I don't support this element of the Administration's strategy. What it smells like to me is that the Administration feels its policy is more defensible if Z and OBL are out there. Maybe for 2 reasons: (1) boogeymen and (2) the bad guys put out bogus information too and could try to disprove an assertion they are dead by distributing bogus tapes.
Personally, given the landing of punches (for lack of defense) against this Administration's veracity, it seems a dangerous game to play. I submit we are better off knowing the truth. Delayed a bit is perfectly understandable. I for one will add another notch to the Bush can't be trusted column if it now turns out we DID get Z. That would mean they simply lied about this matter.
Check that. It would mean they either intentionally misled (lied) or don't know what in the h*#$ is going on in Iraq.
I'm tired of all of the disinformation put out for political - not operative - purposes. Enough already. Call terrorists incidents what they are. Don't issue Ramadan greetings. Educate the population on the nature of the enemy. Don't play games with our servicemen.
The Administration and conservative punditry CHOSE not to talk about Iraq for the last 9 months. It's no wonder the mushy middle of Americans have gotten skeptical. Pessimistic WH statements like this make me wonder what the agenda is.
So let me be sure I understand your position.
I am the only one claiming this. The news articles reporting that these rumors are being circulated, being denied by various agencies, are in fact only being made by me.
So either the rumors being reported on in tehse articles never mentioned by anyone. Or I am in fact the one rumoring them, being reported on by the press and causing the agencies to deny their truth.
And to think I wasn't even claiming the claims were true just laughing that we have yet another in an infinite stream of claims that Zaq is dead.
Just Damn I have such powers that I never even knew.
I think you really need to lay off the caffine for a while bro.
So you finally admit they're just rumors. Thank you.
I have never claimed otherwise.
Even if there isn't a helicopter overhead, I'm sure that they could almost always get one nearly anywhere in Iraq in less than a hour.
But if you are fighting against fierce resistance - for several hours - why wouldn't an airstrike be called in? Surely an airstrike could have been done, I doubt that aircraft and/or munitions were unavailable. But I think that we didn't do an airstrike when we took out Uday and Qusay so that we could show their bodies on TV to the Iraqis. Why else wouldn't you? Unless there was concerns that the resulting explosion might cause collateral damage to persons and property, perhaps...
We don't care about getting Zman alive or dead, but we WOULD take dead. If they knew he was in there, they would have hit him with a JDAMS from 15000 feet.
Yes, dead is certainly acceptable, but I have to think we'd prefer to take him alive (although that would seem to be quite difficult). Although having him dead would eliminate the legal and political headaches of having a trial.
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