Iraq
militants claim al-Zarqawi is dead
AP
| March 4 2004
Al Qaida-linked
extremist suspected of planning attacks
BAGHDAD, Iraq
- A Jordanian extremist suspected of bloody suicide attacks in Iraq was
killed some time ago in U.S. bombing and a letter outlining plans for fomenting
sectarian war is a forgery, a statement allegedly from an insurgent group
west of the capital said.
Abu Musab
al-Zarqawi was killed in the Sulaimaniyah mountains of northern Iraq during
the American bombing there, according to a statement circulated in
Fallujah this week and signed by the Leadership of the Allahu Akbar
Mujahedeen.
There was no way to verify the authenticity of the
statement, one of many leaflets put out by a variety of groups taking part
in the anti-U.S. resistance.
The statement did not say when al-Zarqawi was supposedly
killed, but U.S. jets bombed strongholds of the extremist Ansar al-Islam
in the north last April as Saddam Husseins regime was collapsing.
It said al-Zarqawi was unable to escape the bombing
because of his artificial leg.
Before the Iraq conflict began last March, U.S. Secretary
of State Colin Powell said al-Zarqawi received hospital treatment in Baghdad
after fleeing Afghanistan. U.S. intelligence sources said he apparently
was fitted with an artificial leg.
The statement said the fabricated al-Zarqawi
memo has been used by the U.S.-run coalition to back up their
theory of a civil war in Iraq.
In February, the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq made public
an intercepted letter it said was written by al-Zarqawi to al-Qaida leaders,
detailing a strategy of spectacular attacks to derail the planned June 30
handover of power to the Iraqis. U.S. officials say al-Zarqawi may have
been involved in some of the series of suicide bombings this year in Iraq.
The truth is, al-Qaida is not present in Iraq,
the Mujahedeen statement said. Though many Arabs entered the country to
fight U.S. troops, only a small number remain, the group said.
A little over a year ago, Jordanian authorities named
al-Zarqawi as the mastermind behind the October 2002 murder of Laurence
Foley, a 60-year-old administrator of U.S. aid programs in Jordan.
In a German court last year, Shadi Abdellah, a Palestinian
on trial for allegedly plotting to attack Berlins Jewish Museum and
a Jewish-owned disco, testified he was working for al-Zarqawi. He said they
met in Afghanistan.
German authorities have reportedly said they believe
al-Zarqawi was appointed by al-Qaidas leadership to arrange attacks
in Europe.
Moroccan government sources said a group blamed
for bombings last May that killed 45 people in Casablanca got its orders
from al-Zarqawi. In Turkey, officials said he was believed to have played
a role in bombings that killed 63 at two synagogues, the British consulate
and a British bank in Istanbul in November.