Al-Zarqawi deputy unwittingly aided airstrike

updated 4:38 p.m. ET June 8, 2006

BAGHDAD, Iraq - U.S. and Iraqi forces zeroed in on Abu Musab al-Zarqawi over two weeks, finally tracking his spiritual adviser to the terrorist leader’s doorstep and unleashing the airstrike that killed them both, U.S. and Iraqi officials said Thursday.

The success came after several near misses in the three-year pursuit of Iraq’s most-wanted militant.

Iraqi forces last year reportedly captured al-Zarqawi, then let him go, not realizing it was him. And just last month, al-Zarqawi was said to have leaped from a moving truck to elude U.S. special forces on his tail, an escape filmed by a Predator reconnaissance craft. And another airstrike earlier in the final two-week hunt also missed him, the officials said.

The chase ended Wednesday evening when two 500-pound bombs flattened a modest two-story house surrounded by palm groves and orange orchards outside Baqouba, northeast of Baghdad. A pair of U.S. F-16s on patrol over Iraq were called away for the attack and one of them fired a laser-guided GBU-12 and a satellite-guided GBU-38, said Air Force Lt. Gen. Gary L. North, who commands U.S. and coalition air operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“We knew exactly where he was and we chose the right moment,” North told The Associated Press.

The military declined to say whether forces on the ground helped direct the bombs.

Fatal rendezvous
Al-Zarqawi died with five others, including a woman, a child and the man who unwittingly led the Americans to him — his deputy and spiritual adviser, Abu Abdul-Rahman al-Iraqi, according to U.S. officials.

Al-Iraqi was the key to pinpointing the fugitive, U.S. military spokesman Maj. Gen. William Caldwell said.

Intelligence officials identified al-Iraqi with the help of an insider in al-Zarqawi’s network and began tracking his movements, waiting for him to meet with his boss, Caldwell said.

“Last night, he made a linkup (with al-Zarqawi) again at 6:15, at which time a decision was made to go ahead and strike that target and eliminate both of them,” Caldwell told reporters in Baghdad.

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On Thursday, al-Zarqawi’s al-Qaida in Iraq group issued a Web statement confirming his death. It was signed by Abu Abdul-Rahman al-Iraqi, perhaps to spread confusion over whether he was really killed. But Caldwell and the top U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. George Casey, told reporters that al-Iraqi was among the dead. North said a DNA test would confirm the identity in days.

Raids by Iraqi and U.S. units on insurgent strongholds southwest of Baghdad in the past six weeks also uncovered evidence of al-Zarqawi’s whereabouts, said Col. Todd Ebel, commander of 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division. They showed he had been moving through the area to coordinate attacks in Baghdad, he said.

Net tightened two weeks ago
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said the hunt began to close in on al-Zarqawi two weeks ago, when Iraqi intelligence received reports on his movements.

He said information from Iraqis living in the Baqouba area helped in the search, and in Washington, White House Press Secretary Tony Snow implied that al-Zarqawi had severely alienated the populace in recent days.

Slide show   'Terminated' Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed overnight by F-16 jets dropping two 500-pound bombs.

“Zarqawi moves into Baqouba, into an area called Hibhib. And what happens? Over the weekend, they found nine heads in a box. They beheaded people and left the heads in a box. They hijack a bus full of students and they slaughter the students.

“That’s what Zarqawi brought to Baqouba.”

There was one near miss during that time: “An operation was carried out striking a particular target in the belief that he was present there, but it turned out he had left,” al-Maliki said, without elaboration.

Wednesday’s airstrike ended a hunt that involved hundreds of soldiers, spies, tipsters and intelligence analysts and cost more than $500 million, said Ed O’Connell, a retired Air Force intelligence officer who led manhunts for Osama bin Laden and top insurgents in Afghanistan, Iraq and Yemen.

U.S. troops chasing al-Zarqawi included Special Operations Task Force 145, operating out of Balad air base north of Baghdad, O’Connell said by telephone from Washington.

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