United States Warplanes Kill al-Qaida Leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi

RAY SUAREZ:

The American military says the most-wanted man in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, met his end when the U.S. Air Force dropped two 500-pound bombs on his safe house in a rural village near Baquba, north of Baghdad, this morning.

Iraq's new prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, was the first to deliver the news publicly of Zarqawi's death from the Iraqi capital this morning.

NOURI AL-MALIKI, Prime Minister, Iraq (through translator):

Today we have managed to exterminate Zarqawi.

(APPLAUSE)

What happened today is a result of cooperation that we have been asking from our masses, and from our citizens, and the sons of our country that have been cooperating with us by providing us with information and to have facilitated the task of the Iraqi forces and multinational forces by striking a final blow.

RAY SUAREZ:

Maliki was flanked by the U.S. ambassador, Zalmay Khalilzad, and the U.S. commander in Iraq, General George Casey.

GEN. GEORGE CASEY, Commander Multi-National Force-Iraq:

This happened in an air strike that was conducted against an identified, isolated safe house. Tips and intelligence from Iraqi senior leaders from his network led our forces to Zarqawi and some of his associates, who were conducting a meeting approximately eight kilometers north of Baquba, when the air strike was launched.

What I will tell you — and this will be fleshed out for you this afternoon — all of these operations are the result of a long, painstaking process, where tips and intelligence are received, processed, checked out. This process in itself has been — this particular one has been going on for a couple of weeks, and it led us to this house and to this meeting.