Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian terrorist leader killed in an airstrike on Wednesday, initially survived the bombing and died from his wounds after Iraqi police officers and American soldiers arrived on the scene, American officials said Friday.
The news came as American forces, trying to sustain the momentum gathered after Mr. Zarqawi's death, raided dozens of suspected hideouts of Al Qaeda across Iraq. The Americans said they detained at least 25 suspects, and a senior Pentagon adviser said documents, cellphones, passports and computers were also seized. But one of the raids, in a village not far from the spot where Mr. Zarqawi was killed, appeared to cause a number of civilian deaths.
The new material provided the Special Operations force charged with tracking terrorists with fresh intelligence to carry out attacks before insurgents can shift their operations, the adviser said. "They're going full blast right now," he said of the force. He was granted anonymity because of the classified nature of Special Operations missions. |