News of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s death trickled in to the US Marines camp outside the battle-scarred city of Fallujah today, bringing the troops a vague sense of satisfaction.

Jordan provided the US military with information that helped to track down and kill al-Qaida in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian official said today.

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the al-Qaida-linked militant who led a bloody campaign of suicide bombings, kidnappings and hostage beheadings in Iraq, has been killed in a US air raid north of Baghdad.

US troops in Iraq killed 10 insurgents – three of them wearing suicide vests - in a raid today as American forces stepped up the hunt for terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

In a rare video posted on the internet, al-Qaida in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi accused the West and the United States of waging a “crusader” war against Islam, but said Muslim holy warriors were standing firm.

Jordan’s military prosecutor has concluded his investigation into last year’s hotel bombings in Amman and plans to indict 11 people, including the al-Qaida in Iraq chief Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, according to court documents.

Iraqis zeroed in today on President George Bush’s pledge to stay the course in Iraq, with some expressing anger that he didn’t announce a troop withdrawal and others believing the Americans had little choice but to stick it out here to prevent civil war.

JORDAN’S military court yesterday sentenced al-Qaida in Iraq chief Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and two other militants to death for a failed suicide bombing on the Jordanian-Iraqi border a year ago.

IRAQI security forces questioned terror leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in the Fallujah area last year but released him because they didn’t realise who he was, the deputy interior minister said yesterday.

IRAQ’S election for its first full-term parliament since Saddam Hussein’s overthrow began with special groups voting yesterday.

IN A turbulent court hearing yesterday, al-Qaida-linked suspects charged with plotting a massive chemical explosion in Jordan shouted insults at their military judges.

Al-Qaida in Iraq today denied that its leader, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, was among those killed in a weekend gunfight in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul.

Wearing a disabled explosives belt and a white headscarf and wringing her hands as she spoke, the Iraqi woman calmly described how she tried and failed to join her husband in a suicide attack on a hotel wedding party.

Thousands of Jordanians rallied in the capital and other cities shouting “Burn in hell, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi!” a day after three deadly hotel bombings that killed at least 59 people.

HUNDREDS of angry Jordanians rallied last night outside one of three hotels attacked by suicide bombers, shouting “Burn in hell, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi!”.

JORDAN is the homeland of the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, and has previously arrested scores of Islamic militants for plotting to carry out attacks in the moderate Arab kingdom.

Donations to Hurricane Katrina relief poured in from around the world, with Kuwait offering $500m (€397.4m) and other Mideast countries offering aid and condolences despite widespread opposition to US policies in the area.

Jordan has arrested 17 militants linked to al-Qaida who were allegedly plotting to attack Jordanian intelligence agents and US troops in the kingdom, a military prosecutor said today.

Gunmen killed four policemen and wounded at least nine more in separate attacks in Baghdad today. The reputed leader of al Qaida in Iraq said the country’s security forces were as great an enemy as the Americans and brushed aside calls to abandon the insurgency.

BOMBING and shooting attacks west of Baghdad killed six US troops and a suicide car bomber slammed into a truck carrying Iraqi policemen near the airport yesterday, killing at least eight and wounding 25 - the latest wave of violence aimed at derailing Iraq’s advancing political process.

Spanish police have arrested 11 people linked to the Islamic terror network run by Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi, and another five suspects in the Madrid train bombings of last year, police said today.

Separate air crashes killed four American and four Italian troops, officials said today, and the governor of Anbar province was killed during clashes between US forces and the insurgents who abducted him three weeks ago.

ABOUT 1,000 US Marines, sailors and soldiers encircled the Iraqi city of Haditha in the troubled Anbar province early yesterday, launching the second major anti-insurgent operation in this vast western region in less than a month.

An Islamic website statement claimed today that Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi, al-Qaida in Iraq chief, has fled to an unidentified “neighbouring country” with two Arab doctors treating him for gunshot wounds to his lung.

The most-wanted terrorist in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, has been injured, and a statement attributed to his militant group asked Muslims to pray for his recovery, an internet posting said today.

Iraqi and US forces detained 143 suspected insurgents, taking the number of people rounded up in a two-day offensive in western Baghdad to 428, the military has said.

Coalition forces killed six insurgents in raids targeting the terror network of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi near the Syrian border today, the US military said.

US forces searched a hospital in central Iraq after receiving a tip from an informant about possible terrorist activities there related to Iraq’s most wanted militant, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, an official said today.

IRAQ Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari pledged to unite Iraq and fight terrorism as Iraq’s first democratically-elected government was sworn in yesterday amid continuing violence.

INSURGENTS in Iraq staged a series of car bombings and other attacks yesterday, killing at least 27 people and wounding dozens a day after the country's first democratic government was approved.

Insurgents unleashed a series of deadly attacks today, including 10 car bombings in and around the capital, the day after the country’s first democratically elected government was approved.

BRITISH Prime Minister Tony Blair was warned by his intelligence chiefs that the case for war against Iraq was being fixed by the United States to suit their policy, it was claimed yesterday.

A new online magazine purportedly posted by al-Qaida’s affiliate in Iraq has launched an effort to recruit Muslims to rid Iraq of infidels and apostates - its names for Americans and their Iraqi partners.

Osama bin Laden is enlisting his top operative in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, to plan potential attacks on the United States, US intelligence indicates.

Iraqi forces have captured what the government described today as a trusted aide to al-Qaida terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

The terror group al-Qaida in Iraq, led by Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, vowed to carry out attacks against military targets in the coming days in an internet statement posted today.

INSURGENTS killed five US soldiers in separate attacks in Baghdad yesterday and bombed more polling stations across the country, sending a message that if Iraqis suffer on election day, "you have only yourselves to blame."

A message purporting to be from Iraq’s most feared terror leader – Abu Musab al-Zarqawi – today declared a “fierce war” on democracy and next week’s Iraqi elections.

A suicide attacker detonated a car bomb north of Baghdad today, killing 12 Iraqis – all but one of them National Guards – in another strike against those co-operating with American forces, the US military said.

Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s Sunni rebel group, al-Qaida in Iraq, has claimed responsibility for bomb attacks on a police station in the country today.

US troops sweeping through Fallujah found what appeared to be a command centre used by followers of Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, as a general declared the battle for the city had “broken the back of the insurgency”.

Video purportedly showing a suicide attack on three British troops outside Baghdad was posted on an Islamic website today.

FRESH hopes emerged last night that Dublin-born hostage Margaret Hassan could be released by her abductors.

THE kidnappers of Iraq hostage Margaret Hassan, 59, last night threatened to hand her over to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi if their demands are not met within 48 hours.