Al-Qaida in Iraq denies Al-Zarqawi dead story

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.

In a statement posted on an Islamic website that often carries militant reports, al-Qaida said it delayed responding to the rumours of al-Zarqawi’s death “until this lie took its full length to let Muslims know the extent of (the media’s) stupidity and shallow thinking.”