Free Republic

A mortally wounded Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was still alive and mumbling on a gurney when Iraqi police arrived at the site bombed by U.S. forces there, a top American military spokesman said Friday. Maj. Gen. Bill Caldwell, briefing military reporters at the Pentagon from his post in Baghdad, said he learned that al-Zarqawi was alive after getting briefings on the military operation that netted al-Zarqawi and several others. "He mumbled something but it was indistinguishable and it was very short," Caldwell said. The U.S. military earlier had displayed images of the battered face of al-Zarqawi and reported that he had...

MOSUL, Iraq (AFP) - At least 17 Kurdish militiamen were killed in a suicide car bombing in the northern city of Mosul, exacerbating fears that a riding tide of violence could derail Iraq's January elections. The attack came hours after a double car bombing in Baghdad killed at least four policemen and wounded 49 others and as 13 other Iraqis were reported killed in a wave of attacks across the country. The PUK chief in Mosul, Saad Pira, told AFP 17 peshmergas were killed and more than 40 wounded when a suicide car bomber rammed their convoy at around 4:30...