The Counterterrorism Blog: Al Zarqawi Death Rumor

Keep an eye on this rumor over the next 48 hours...!! It would not surprise us to turn out confirmed in a few days.

The Counterterrorism Blog: Al Zarqawi death rumor (UPDATED): "Bill Roggio tells me that the AKI (Adnkronos International) site reports that AZ is dead. I had just finished a MSNBC interview, and they have picked that up but won't run it without more solid info. As I posted below, AKI quoted an Iraqi general about AZ's injury on May 11. UPDATE: The new AKI story says, 'The Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi - al-Qaeda's leader in Iraq - died on Friday and his body is in Fallujah's cemetary, an Iraqi Sunni sheikh, Ammar Abdel Rahim Nasir, has told the Saudi on-line newspaper Al-Medina. He claims that gunfights which broke out in Fallujah in the last few days involved militants trying to protect the insurgency leader's tomb from a group of American soldiers patrolling the area. During a telephone conversation from the city of Fallujah with the Saudi newspaper, Nasir said al-Zarqawi was taken there after being injured in the city of Ramadi around three weeks ago, and may have been treated by two doctors who had worked with his aides in Baghdad. He said the two doctors had stopped a serious haemorrhage in al-Zarqawi's intestines, but that after his condition worsened last week, the militant died on Friday.' UPDATE 2: Contributing Expert Evan Kohlmann, currently on travel, e-mailed me to say that AZ and Al Qaeda officially denied the story - will post a link to that site as soon as possible.

Posted by Andrew Cochran at 12:48 PM "