Bombing suspect Al-Zarqawi 'is dead'

A Jordanian extremist suspected of bloody suicide attacks in Iraq was killed some time ago in US bombing and a letter outlining plans for fomenting sectarian war is a forgery, a statement allegedly from an insurgent group west of Baghdad said.

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed in the Sulaimaniyah mountains of northern Iraq “during the American bombing there,” according to a statement circulated in Fallujah this week and signed by the “Leadership of the Allahu Akbar Mujahedeen”.

There was no way to verify the authenticity of the statement, one of many leaflets put out by a variety of groups taking part in the anti-US resistance.

The statement did not say when al-Zarqawi was supposedly killed, but US jets bombed strongholds of the extremist Ansar al-Islam in the north last April as Saddam Hussein’s regime was collapsing.

It said al-Zarqawi was unable to escape the bombing because of his artificial leg.

The statement said the “fabricated al-Zarqawi memo” has been used by the US-run coalition “to back up their theory of a civil war” in Iraq.

In February, the US-led coalition in Iraq made public an intercepted letter it said was written by al-Zarqawi to al-Qaida leaders, detailing a strategy of spectacular attacks to derail the planned June 30 handover of power to the Iraqis.

US officials say al-Zarqawi may have been involved in some of the series of suicide bombings this year in Iraq.

“The truth is, al-Qaida is not present in Iraq,” the Mujahedeen statement said. Though many Arabs entered the country to fight US troops, only a small number remain, the group said.