al-Zarqawi May Have been Killed in Mosul (moved from ATSNN), page 1

This news is just breaking over CNN and other sources. Abu Musab al-Zarqawi may have been killed today when coalition forces surrounded a house believed to be a safe house. Inital reports state that eight occupants of the house committed suicide by blowing themselves up, rather than risk being taken alive by the coalition.

www.jpost.com
The Elaph Arab media website reported on Sunday that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the head of the al-Qaida in Iraq terror group, may have been killed in Iraq on Sunday afternoon when eight terrorists blew themselves up in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul.

The unconfirmed report claimed that the explosions occurred while coalition forces surrounded the house in which al-Zarqawi was hiding. American and Iraqi forces are looking into the report.

Please visit the link provided for the complete story.

CNN reported this just a few moments ago. The terrorists chose suicide over a gun battle or surrender. al-Zarqawi was supposedly among the dead.

It would have been better to capture him alive. There will be much skepticism over the identity if he is indeed dead; recall the doubts over whether Saddam Hussein's two sons were actually the men in the pictures.

It is possible that the coalition has some DNA or other identification methods to determine if it is indeed al-Zarqawi. One wonders whether the recent bombings in Amman, Jordan, that al-Zarqawi claimed responsibility for, turned out to be his downfall in the end.

[edit on 20-11-2005 by jsobecky]