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4:54 AM EDT
Al-Zarqawi Killed in U.S. Bombing in Iraq
By PATRICK QUINN
Associated Press Writer
AP Photo
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BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, carried out some of the bloodiest suicide attacks in Iraq and led a campaign of kidnappings and hostage beheadings until he was killed in a U.S. bombing Thursday. He was the apparent victim of his own hubris after Iraqi leaders said a video he put on the web helped lead them to him.
The immediate impact of his death on the insurgency was unclear.
Al-Zarqawi was the most prominent of the insurgency's leaders, but his strength within the movement was never certain. Homegrown Sunni Iraqi guerrillas are believed to have had as important a role in the fight against U.S. forces and the new Iraqi government.
Still, al-Zarqawi was behind the most vicious of the bloody wave of attacks that has helped turn the swift U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003 into a grueling counter-insurgency fight.
The Jordanian-born militant is believed to have personally beheaded at least two American hostages, Nicholas Berg in April 2004 and Eugene Armstrong in September 2004. The United States put a $25 million bounty on his head, the same amount as al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.
In the past year, he moved his campaign beyond Iraq's borders, carrying out a Nov. 9, 2005 triple suicide bombing against hotels in Amman that killed 60 people, as well as other attacks in Jordan and even a rocket attack from Lebanon into northern Israel.
He also sought to expand...
The internet is incredibly slow this morning, so I'm only gonna post these two items above. It has taken me an hour or so to get this together. My computer clock says 5.38am, and you'll see what the post time is when I finally logged on to ctreate a post at blogger. When I started, Drudge didn't even have the story...bet he does now!
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