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| Originally Aired: June 9, 2006 |
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U.S. Military Clarifies Zarqawi Death from Air Strike |
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| A report looks at the latest details of his killing of al-Zarqawi's death in Iraq, including the announcement today by that U.S. military that the Al-Qaeda operative was alive for a short time after the bombings. |
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KWAME HOLMAN: It seemed unlikely anyone could have lived
through the massive U.S. air
strike north of Baghdad yesterday, but that's
the news U.S.
military spokesman Major General William Caldwell delivered to reporters at the
Pentagon via satellite.
MAJ. GEN. WILLIAM CALDWELL, Spokesman, Multi-National
Force-Iraq: What I can tell you is that, again, from the debriefs this morning,
which gave us greater clarity than what we had before, is Zarqawi, in fact, did
survive the air strike.
The report specifically states that nobody else did survive,
though, from what they know.
The first people on the scene were the Iraqi police. They
had found him and put him into some kind of gurney-stretcher kind of thing, and
then American coalition forces arrived immediately thereafter onsite. They
immediately went to the person in the stretcher, were able to start identifying
him by some distinguishing marks on his body. |
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After the strike
JOURNALIST: Sorry, did anyone render medical assistance to
him? Did U.S.
troops try and render medical assistance?
MAJ. GEN. WILLIAM CALDWELL: They went into the process to
provide medical care to him.
JOURNALIST: Sir, had he been shot?
MAJ. GEN. WILLIAM CALDWELL: No, there was there nothing in
the report that said he had received any wounds from some kind of weapons
system like that.
JOURNALIST: Was Zarqawi able to speak? Did he say anything,
either to the Iraqi police or the American soldiers?
MAJ. GEN. WILLIAM CALDWELL: If he said something to the
Iraqi police, I'm not aware of it. According to the reports by the coalition
forces that arrived onsite, he mumbled a little something, but it was
indistinguishable, and it was very short. |
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Pictures of the body
JOURNALIST: How can you be sure that Zarqawi died as a
result of the wounds he received from the explosion without a formal autopsy? And,
secondly, when you were cleaning him up, did you have to Photoshop his face or
anything to make him more recognizable for the picture?
MAJ. GEN. WILLIAM CALDWELL: To take your second question,
first, yes, Jeff, his face was very, very bloodied. And we made a conscious
decision that, if we were going to take photographs of him and make them
available publicly, like we did in the press conference, that we were going
clean him up.
Despite the fact that this person actually had no regard for
human life, we were not going to treat him in the same manner. And so they did
clean his face up for the shots that were shown publicly.
As far as the autopsy goes, I know that, quote, "was an
autopsy" done, but I'm going to go back to make sure that it was performed
by whatever the certified kind of person that we're supposed to have so we can
call it an autopsy and make sure I'm exactly correct before I tell you that. |
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Surviving the blast
JOURNALIST: Was there any plastic surgery used to
reconstruct his face to make it more presentable before yesterday's news conference?
MAJ. GEN. WILLIAM CALDWELL: There was none that I know of. I'll
verify that by going back and asking the question, but I did not see it stated
anywhere that, in fact, that had occurred, so I don't think it did. But I'll
verify that for you.
JOURNALIST: And, General, everybody's asking the question: How
possibly could he have survived seemingly intact after two 500-pound bombs were
dropped on that facility? Was he outside? Was he thrown clear? Is there any
visibility on why he was able to survive those two bombs?
MAJ. GEN. WILLIAM CALDWELL: There are cases when people, in
fact, can survive even an attack like that on a building structure. Obviously,
the other five in the building did not, but he did for some reason. And we do
not know -- and I've looked through the reports -- as to whether or not it was
because he might have been right outside or whatever. We just don't have that
granularity. |
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Other casualties
KWAME HOLMAN: Caldwell
also provided new details about the attack's aftermath. In addition to Abu
Musab al-Zarqawi, five other people were confirmed killed in the blasts but,
contrary to earlier reports, no children were among the dead. U.S. forces recovered a hidden
cache of weaponry, ammunition belts, Iraqi army uniforms, and other materials
near Zarqawi's hideout.
Caldwell also told reporters
about Abu Ayyub al-Masri, the man the U.S.
military expects to take over al-Qaida in Iraq.
MAJ. GEN. WILLIAM CALDWELL: What we do know about him: He's
Egyptian-born. We know that he and Zarqawi met each other at the al-Farouq
training camp in Afghanistan, probably some time in the early 2001 to 2002 time
period.
We know that al-Masri came to Iraq before Zarqawi did,
probably located somewhere around the Baghdad area some time in around 2003,
established probably the first al-Qaida in Iraq cell here in the Baghdad area,
and that they've continued a very close relationship since that time.
KWAME HOLMAN: Today in Baghdad,
worshippers headed to Friday prayers on foot because of the curfew.
RAY SUAREZ: A small correction: The strike that killed
al-Zarqawi occurred on Wednesday, not yesterday, as stated earlier.
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U.S. Military Clarifies Zarqawi Death from Air Strike |
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| MIDDLE EAST: IRAQ |
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| WORLD VIEW |
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