Pictures of Zarqawi's body were earlier put on display by the US
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Militant leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was still alive when Iraqi police got to the scene of the air strikes that targeted him, the US military says.
But the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq died of his wounds shortly afterwards, Major General William Caldwell said.
US planes dropped two 500lb (230kg) bombs on Zarqawi's safe house near the city of Baquba on Wednesday.
Zarqawi had tried to move off the stretcher where he had been placed by Iraqi police, Maj Gen Caldwell said.
"Everybody resecured him back onto the stretcher, but he died almost immediately thereafter from the wounds he had received from this air strike," he said.
'Mumbled'
Zarqawi had "mumbled something indistinguishable and... very short" before he died, the US spokesman said.
When US troops got there, they had made an identification of Zarqawi by distinguishing marks on his body and "some kind of visual, facial recognition", he said.
"We do not know" why he had survived the initial strike, he said.
The US hit Zarqawi's safe house at 1815 (1415 GMT) on Wednesday after receiving specific tip-offs from within Zarqawi's organisation, officials had earlier said.
Gen Caldwell said there was nothing to indicate Zarqawi was shot or died of wounds other than those received in the bombing.
He said some "analysis of his body" had been done and DNA results were expected in coming days.
Zarqawi was one of six people killed in the raid, including two other men and three women, he added.