Posted on 06/10/2006 9:33:06 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
BAGHDAD, Iraq - The U.S. military flew in two forensic specialists Saturday to examine the remains of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi "to see how he actually died" and to reconstruct the last minutes of his life, a spokesman said.
The examination comes after U.S. authorities altered their initial account of the al-Qaida leader's death, first saying he died outright in a U.S. airstrike, then saying he survived but died soon after.
Also, an Iraqi man raised fresh questions, telling Associated Press Television News that he saw U.S. soldiers beating an injured man resembling al-Zarqawi until blood flowed from his nose.
Maj. Gen. William Caldwell, a spokesman for the U.S. military in Baghdad, said the decision to fly in forensic experts was made shortly after al-Zarqawi's death. The airstrike also killed five others, including al-Zarqawi's spiritual adviser, Sheik Abdul-Rahman.
"I think if we don't do a full autopsy then that might irresponsible on our part," Caldwell said. "I think we sort of owe that just for this reason: How did he actually die?"
He said the U.S. government thought it was important enough "that we grabbed two people in the last 48 hours and told them pack up and move to Iraq."
Asked about the claim that U.S. soldiers may have beaten al-Zarqawi after the attack, Caldwell said he would check. In Washington, Pentagon spokesman Jeffrey Gordon said Saturday he was unaware of the claim.
"We frequently receive allegations which prove to be unsubstantiated," Gordon said.
The Iraqi, identified only as Mohammed, said he lives near the house where al-Zarqawi was killed. He said residents put a bearded man in an ambulance before U.S. forces arrived.
"When the Americans arrived they took him out of the ambulance, they beat him on his stomach and wrapped his head with his dishdasha, then they stomped on his stomach and his chest until he died and blood came out of his nose," Mohammed said, without saying how he knew the man was dead.
A dishdasha is a traditional Arab robe.
A similar account in The Washington Post identified the man as Ahmed Mohammed.
No other witnesses have come forward to corroborate the account. U.S. officials have only said al-Zarqawi mumbled and tried to roll off a stretcher before dying.
In announcing al-Zarqawi's death, the U.S. military said Thursday that al-Zarqawi was killed outright when two 500-pound bombs were dropped on his hideout. On Friday, the military said al-Zarqawi survived the bombing, which ripped a crater in the date-palm forest where the house was nestled just outside Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad.
"It's not going to be 100 percent accurate all the time, but the first reports are going to be a little confused. There are going to be some conflicting stories," Caldwell said, adding that the military should have an accurate chronology ready by Monday.
He said Iraqi police reached the scene first and found the 39-year-old al-Zarqawi alive.
"The coalition forces arrived on the scene. The Iraqi police were there. They in fact saw a person on a stretcher. They moved to that person immediately. A medical person started immediately applying first aid to that person. Another person was trying to talk to that person, to try to identify who this was. They were trying to talk to him and ask him who he was," Caldwell said.
The airstrike killed two other men, two women and girl between the ages of 5 and 7 who were in the house.
APTN footage of the scene showed a wide swath of destruction.
Debris — shoes, sandals, a woman's slip — was scattered over concrete blocks and twisted metal. Trees were ripped from their roots. Charred dresses, torn blankets, thin sponge mattresses and pillows were the crater blasted by the bombs. 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."
___
Associated Press writer Ryan Lenz contributed to this report.
Here's his last moments in a nutshell:
There's something happening here
What it is ain't exactly clear
There's a plane with a bomb up there
Telling me I got to beware
I think it's time we stop, children, what's that sound
Everybody look what's coming down.
For what it's worth.
Someone posted on another post that that is exactly what you'll see when someone dresses a head wound, and performs CPR.
All the islamawhackajobs have imams. This particular one was radical, so good riddance to him.
Roasting in Hades would be too good for this one ...
I read these stories, and I really just want to shout "Get the He** out of here!" What leftist nonsense pervades the media! Why would the Americans beat a high value target when they could capture and interrogate him? And who would write such nonsense except a leftist creep? There is nothing "controversial" about the way we took out a homicidal maniac enemy.
Should really read:
"you SEDITIOUS numbskulls";)
Tattooed somewhere in the intimacy of his body was a drawing of a heart with the words "Democrats Forever"...
It looks like every unit has to travel with cameras so as to to have evidence against these kind of allegations, just as police departments found it necessary to equip their cars with cameras.
Perhaps the soldiers need lawyers to travel with them.
Why waste the energy cremating. I hear hogs will eat almost anything.
ROTFLOL!
This keeps him from being buried before the sun sets, which is apparently some sort of muzzie tradition. Now he is as good as pig food.
Yea!
"There may be intelligence to gain from the body itself too.
Never know. Every corpse has a story."
Right! - you are a bright light amongst the crap that has been posted here by attention getters.
LOL.. Thanks!
Capt. Ed Morrissey notes why the story was impossible. He concludes:The logistics of the site appear determinative that the residents of the village could not have seen any of what transpired at the safe house. The sequence of events show that the US had timed their raid for maximum security and efficiency, and that the ground forces of Iraqi and American troops would have acted immediately to secure this very remote site to ensure no one escaped. The AP apparently didn't read the Reuters description of the attack site before publishing this uncorroborated account of a supposed atrocity.
Is the AP now in the business of reporting anything anyone says about any event without doing some rudimentary investigation first? We call that gossip, not news, and we expect better than a National Enquirer standard at the AP.
http://www.captainsquartersblog.com/mt/archives/007178.php
"Zarqawi isn't merely dead,
He's really quite sincerely dead!"
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