Posted on 06/10/2006 8:57:01 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
BAGHDAD, Iraq - U.S. officials have altered their account of the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, saying he was alive and partly conscious after bombs destroyed his hideout, and an Iraqi man raised fresh questions Saturday about the events surrounding the end of Iraq's most-wanted militant.
The man, who lived near the scene of the bombing, claimed in an interview with AP Television News to have seen U.S. soldiers beating an injured man resembling al-Zarqawi until blood flowed from the man's nose.
When asked about the man's allegations, military spokesman Maj. Gen. William Caldwell said he would check. In Washington, Pentagon spokesman Jeffrey Gordon said Saturday he was unaware of the claim.
The Iraqi, identified as Mohammed Ahmed, claimed that residents put the man in an ambulance before U.S. forces arrived. The American military team then pulled the man from the ambulance and beat him, Ahmed said. He gave a similar account to The Washington Post.
No other witnesses have come forward to corroborate the account of a man resembling al-Zarqawi being beaten. U.S. officials have only said al-Zarqawi mumbled and tried to roll off a stretcher before dying.
On Friday, the military said al-Zarqawi survived the dropping of two 500-pound bombs on his hideout. The bombs tore a huge crater in the date palm forest where the house was nestled just outside Baqouba, northwest of Baghdad.
Iraqi police reached the scene first, and found the 39-year-old al-Zarqawi alive.
"He mumbled something, but it was indistinguishable and it was very short," Caldwell, a spokesman for U.S.-led forces in Iraq, said Friday.
Iraqi police pulled al-Zarqawi from the flattened home and placed him on a makeshift stretcher. U.S. troops arrived, saw that al-Zarqawi was conscious and tried to provide medical treatment, the spokesman said.
"He obviously had some kind of visual recognition of who they were because he attempted to roll off the stretcher, as I am told, and get away, realizing it was the U.S. military," Caldwell told Pentagon reporters via videoconference from Baghdad.
Al-Zarqawi "attempted to, sort of, turn away off the stretcher," he said. "Everybody re-secured him back onto the stretcher, but he died almost immediately thereafter from the wounds he'd received from this airstrike."
Caldwell has not mentioned any other physical interaction between U.S. troops and al-Zarqawi.
But Ahmed told AP Television News that a bearded man was still alive and was lying next to an irrigation canal. He claimed that U.S. troops wrapped a traditional Arab robe, known as a dishdasha, over the bearded man's head and beat him. His account could not be independently verified.
AP footage of the date palm grove showed debris concrete blocks, shoes and sandals scattered over a wide area around a large crater. Date palms were ripped from their roots around the blast site.
So much blood covered al-Zarqawi's body that U.S. forces cleaned him up before taking photographs.
"Despite the fact that this person actually had no regard for human life, we were not going to treat him in the same manner," Caldwell said.
The airstrike killed two other men and three women who were in the house, but only al-Zarqawi and his spiritual adviser have been positively identified, he said.
From a helicopter hovering above, a wide swath of destruction could be seen. The debris around the site included a women's slip and other pieces of clothing. Charred dresses, torn blankets, thin sponge mattresses and pillows were in the crater itself.
The debris of concrete blocks and twisted metal reinforcement bars included a pillow with a floral pattern, sandals and a foam mattress with the covering torn off. A cooling unit and part of a washing machine also were in the area.
Lt. Col. Thomas Fisher of the 1st Battalion, 68th Armored Cavalry said his men showed up at the site about five minutes after the blast and cordoned it off. He said they had a patrol in the area already.
"We didn't know it was Zarqawi, we just knew it was a time-sensitive target," he said at the scene early Saturday. "We suspected who it was."
Caldwell also said experts told him it is not unheard of for people to survive a blast of that magnitude. He said he did not know if al-Zarqawi was inside or outside the house when the bombs struck.
"Well, what we had found, as with anything, first reports are not always fully accurate as we continue the debriefings. But we were not aware yesterday that, in fact, Zarqawi was alive when U.S. forces arrived on the site," Caldwell said.
His recounting of the aftermath of the airstrike could not be independently verified. The Iraqi government confirmed only that Iraqi forces were first on the scene, followed by the Americans.
For three years, al-Zarqawi orchestrated horrific acts of violence guided by his extremist vision of jihad, or holy war first against the U.S. soldiers he considered occupiers of Arab lands, then against the Shiites he considered infidels.
No, he was on fire, and then Cheney shot him with birdshot, then the US soldiers beat on him to put him out, and then they peed on him to extinguish the last flames.
THEN they baked him in a devil's food cake.
LOL! I love it!
Exactly. At least have the reporters check out the photos taken by their photographers and ask them, "Do you think you could have survived that?" Zarqawi was a dead man walking when they pulled him out of the wreckage. Some people just take longer to die than others. This "witness" bozo is no more than a lying, local insurgent. I hate to say this but I'd almost bet the military would have loved to taken Zarqawi alive. He would have been a wealth of information about terrorism.
I dont think TIME or Newsweak will put this story on the cover, because a new Christian movie is out..
Looks like the same article.. different title..
No problem.
All the more opportunity to pop a few MSM blisters before the Sunday talk shows crank up their bile or should I say vile glands and vent their spleens. ;-)
sometimes a good a-s kicking just feels good and why ? a good thing
This SOB just changed the whole story on the site from before. Unbelievable. Dang... got to get a capture from somewhere.
"He would have been a wealth of information about terrorism."
______________________________
I heard on the initial reports that after the strike 17 "safe houses" were taken and a bunch of terrorists arrested. I haven't heard anything about this since.
The Men in the Shadows -- Hunting al-Zarqawi ~~ Task Force 145
And the list at SecurityWatchtower of the 200 Aides Killed and captured by TF 145...........link on the thread.
The gazillionth example of the quality reporting we've come to depend on. /sarc
The bastard changed the story and replaced it with a later one. I'm so heated... because I didn't capture the web page.
Yeah, if we don't get him it's a failure, and if we do get him we (a) beat to death a mortally wounded man and(b) accomplished nothing,(c) in fact, probably made the situation worse.
PHEH
I kinda like his version better. ;-)
Post-Zarqawi security sweep continues |
||
Posted by Grendel9 On 06/10/2006 12:03:21 PM CDT · 4 replies · 102+ views english.aljazeera.net ^ The US military says it has carried out nearly 60 raids following the killing of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq. Some raids were carried out using information gathered from the house where al-Zarqawi was killed on Wednesday, a US military spokesman said. Major General William Caldwell said documents and information storage devices were found, as well as rifles and grenades, at the house near Baquba, north of Baghdad. At least 24 people were detained and one person was killed during the raids, he said. Caldwell displayed photographs of items he said were recovered during the operations... |
Thats one version, another version said the troops pulled him from an ambulance, where some locals had placed him, and then beat him. Thats some swift ambulance service. I think the troops were on scene minutes after the blast. Did zark call 911??
Sure. Whatever you say.
The AP is always playing with the titles.
Special Ops should start sending extravagant gifts to this guy, Mohammed Ahmed, with thank you notes for being the Tipster of the Year for zark's whereabouts. He won't last long enough to get his full 15 minutes.
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