Please, please, please let this be true.
June 8, 2006 — Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, al Qaeda’s leader in Iraq who led a bloody insurgency of suicide bombings and kidnappings, was killed in an airstrike north of Baghdad.
President Bush welcomed the news of the killing of Zarqawi by military forces in Iraq. Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s death “is a severe blow to al-Qaida and it is a significant victory in the war on terror,” Bush said in a news conference at the White House.
“We have tough days ahead of us in Iraq that will require the continuing patience of the American people,” he said.
‘Eliminated’
Earlier today, Iraq’s Prime Minister in Baghdad confirmed Zarqawi’s death. “Today, al-Zarqawi has been eliminated,” Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said in Arabic amid cheers at news conference this morning, with U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad and U.S. Gen. George Casey, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, at his side.
Al Qaeda in Iraq confirmed the death of the group’s leader, according to an Islamist web site posting.
Call me a skeptic, but I want to see the body.
Update: Absolute, positive identification. Photo, fingerprints, positive ID. I was watching some of the news channels, and was utterly amazed at how everyone but Fox was downplaying this victory. Their dream headline: Zarqawi dead, but that won’t change anything.
Christiane Amanpour was among the wettest of blankets.
Update 2: Bill Roggio’s take on how the mission was accomplished.
It is a huge, long-awaited success. It is highly unlikely that we will see any major improvements in Iraq in the aftermath of the event, but his elimination is still symbolically important. A great morale booster.
Additionally, it is a grandiose gift for the GOP.
They claim to have identification based on fingerprints, scars, and facial characteristics. I suspect even Bush and his merry band of screwups would realize the implications of premature exultation in this circumstance…
And it was a nice touch that they said on the news that “high level contacts in the Zarqawi organization” tipped off the location; now let’s see the shooting and stabbing start among his potential replacements in terms of “who was the spy…”
#1
He’s dead, knock off the Bush bashing at least for today.
Ding dong you know who’s dead……
Got a bucket and a sponge ?. There probably isn’t too much of his body left.
Someone on The Corner said “Isn’t it about time for Chairman Howard to say something like ‘I suppose
it’s a good thing that Zarqawi is dead…'”
Nick Berg’s dad is weeping for another human being killed.
Just what we need in Congress… someone more moonbat than McKinney and Barbara Lee combined.
Berg can feel what he wants, it doesn’t wreck my mood. Zarqawi got what was coming to him.
May Zarqawi’s 72 virgins all look like Yasser Arafat.
chsw
ah…. time to throw another sacred cow burger on the grill…
http://www.sacredcowburgers.com/mystery/showpics.cgi?the_rude_awakening
I’ve already sent this to Meryl, before, but it is kinda funny. :)
I like the one about him meeting Thomas Jefferson et al and getting beaten (with appropriate quotes from each one attached). The punchline is that the promise was a typo. He gets to meet 72 “Virginians”.
Another one is that the 72 virgins is actually a punishment. They intend to keep their virginity and treat him the way all attempted rapists should be treated.