Even if it had been on the 6th when he was killed (which it was not) I am almost sure they couldn't get dna back that fast. I heard them say he was identified by pictures, teeth, and known scars he had.
Also fingerprints and tattoos. DNA proof is just a formality at this point.
I did say from what I gathered in my post, thank you.
CNN BREAKING NEWS Aired June 8, 2006 - 06:00 A.M. ET
Let's get right to Ed Henry. He's at the White House for us this morning with some new information on the president.
Ed, good morning.
HENRY: That's right.
Good morning, Soledad.
And we're hearing that while the president will be making that statement at 7:30 a.m. Eastern Time, he has known that al-Zarqawi was dead or likely to be dead for over 24 hours now. Hearing from a senior administration official that late yesterday afternoon, after meeting with several members of Congress who had just come back from various official trips to Iraq, getting briefings about the situation there on the ground.
After those meetings wrapped up, almost about 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time here at the White House, the president was informed by senior officials that they had good reason to believe that al-Zarqawi was in fact dead, but they were being cautious. They wanted to go through the fingerprinting process, the meticulous process that Barbara Starr has been reporting on.
It wasn't until officially about 9:20 p.m. Eastern Time last night that it was fully confirmed to the president directly by officials here al-Zarqawi was in fact dead. Though over the course of those few hours, of course officials here did believe that this was different than other false alarms that they had gotten before. They felt strongly that this one -- that this in fact was a match. Finally, a little bit of guidance from a senior official about exactly what the president will be saying, that it will not just be saying -- the president will not just say this is a significant development in the war on terror, you know a key victory, but also will note of course that there are significant challenges ahead.
The White House mindful of not getting overly optimistic here, a major development. You know they're noting, obviously, this was a key player in all of the terrorism, not just against innocent Iraqis, but against U.S. troops in Iraq. But also wanting to note there will be significant challenges ahead in Iraq -- Soledad.
VAUSE: Yes, at this stage, that's all up in the air. We're hoping for more specific details from General Casey at that press briefing.
What we know at this stage is that they launched the attack on that safehouse around 6:15 local time. That's getting on to about 21 hours ago now when that airstrike was launched. Judging by the video that we've seen from the site, it was a very destructive airstrike which was carried out. They certainly didn't take any chances that anyone was going to get out of that house alive.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki announced at a press conference . "We have eliminated Zarqawi." The head of US-led forces in Iraq, General George Casey, said the strike against an "isolated safe house" took place at 1815 (1415 GMT) on Wednesday. (BBC, 7 June 2006)
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