It’s deja vu all over again with yet another announcement that a top Al-Qaeda terrorist — a REALLY top Al-Qaeda terrorist this time — has been reportedly killed.
You have to say “reportedly” and hedge your bets, since over the past few years perhaps dozens of Al-Qaeda’s top three terorrists have been reported killed or captured — if you factor in each report saying one of The Top Terrorist Elite has bit the dust. But it truly sounds credible this time.
UPDATE (see below for details) U.S. officials now believe he was not killed…
BAGHDAD, Iraq – U.S. forces sealed off a house in the northern city of Mosul where eight suspected al-Qaida members died in a gunfight — some by their own hand to avoid capture. A U.S. official said Sunday that efforts were under way to determine if terror leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was among the dead.,,,
…In Washington, a U.S. official said the identities of the terror suspects killed in the Saturday raid was unknown. Asked if they could include al-Zarqawi, the official replied: “There are efforts under way to determine if he was killed.”
….On Saturday, police Brig. Gen. Said Ahmed al-Jubouri said the raid was launched after a tip that top al-Qaida operatives, possibly including al-Zarqawi, were in the house in the northeastern part of the city.
During the intense gunbattle that followed, three insurgents detonated explosives and killed themselves to avoid capture, Iraqi officials said. Eleven Americans were wounded, the U.S. military said. Such intense resistance often suggests an attempt to defend a high-value target.
Iraq The Model has more details, such as:
According to these two sources, Iraqi and US military forces in Mosul think that Zarqawi, al-Qaeda leader in Iraq was possibly killed in a raid on a house where members of al-Qaeda were holding a meeting.
Al-Mada paper said that terrorists hiding in a house fired back at American and Iraqi troops that were surrounding the house in a battle that lasted from dawn to noon on Saturday (Jerusalem Post said it was Sunday)`after receiving intelligence about a meeting for senior al-Qaeda members.
But there’s another strand to this as well: Zarqawi had some big problems on the domestic home front recently, according to the AP:
AMMAN, Jordan – Family members of Jordanian-born Abu Musab al-Zarqawi renounced the terrorist leader Sunday after his al-Qaida in Iraq group claimed responsibility for the Nov. 9 suicide attacks on three Amman hotels that killed 59 people
The family of al-Zarqawi, whose real name is Ahmed Fadheel Nazzal al-Khalayleh, reiterated their strong allegiance to Jordan’s King Abdullah II in half-page advertisements in the kingdom’s three main newspapers. Al-Zarqawi threatened to kill the king in an audiotape released Friday.
“A Jordanian doesn’t stab himself with his own spear,” said the statement by 57 members of the al-Khalayleh family, including al-Zarqawi’s brother and cousin. “We sever links with him until doomsday.”
The statement is a serious blow to al-Zarqawi, who no longer will enjoy the protection of his tribe and whose family members may seek to kill him.
“As we pledge to maintain homage to your throne and to our precious Jordan … we denounce in the clearest terms all the terrorist actions claimed by the so-called Ahmed Fadheel Nazzal al-Khalayleh, who calls himself Abu Musab al-Zarqawi,” the family members said.
“We announce, and all the people are our witnesses, that we — the sons of the al-Khalayleh tribe — are innocent of him and all that emanates from him, whether action, assertion or decision.”
The statement said anyone who carried out such violence in the kingdom does not enjoy its protection.
So you could spin all kinds of (speculative) scenarios: such as they renounced him…and someone gave info to make sure he was located and taken out of commission. Zarqawi, if you recall, was that brave “insurgent” who is believed to be the mastermind and in some cases the actual hand doing the beheadings of some helpless, bound, screaming hostages last year — beheadings that were dutifully videotaped and effectively put Al-Qaeda into the snuff film business.
But there is this cautionary note: some highly-touted news reports detailing the capture of Al-Qaeda bigwigs have been overblown or wrong in the past. There is, in fact, NO CONFIRMATION yet that it is him.
UPDATE: Stephen Green looks at these reports. A small excerpt:
One thing’s for sure: Zarqawi’s Jordanian fundraising efforts have taken a hit. And another thing. People may pick on President Bush for not being the shiniest penny in the roll, but we can be thankful our enemies have even less gloss. In other words, what the hell was Zarqawi thinking when he attacked Jordan?
UPDATE II: But U.S. officials don’t believe he was killed, as the Washington Post reports:
U.S. officials said Monday that they do not believe Abu Musab Zarqawi, the Jordanian insurgent leader, was among those killed in a gunfight in northern Iraq Sunday.
“I do not believe that we got him,” said Zelmay Khalilzad, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq. “But his days are numbered. We’re closer to that goal but unfortunately we didn’t get him in Mosul.”
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.