US: No sign Zarqawi is dead

2005-11-22 21:49

Washington - A top United States general said on Tuesday there was no reason to believe that al-Qaeda's leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, had been killed in a recent raid on the Iraqi city of Mosul.

Lieutenant-General John Vines said, however, that US and Iraqi forces were "relentlessly" pursuing every lead, indicating the presence of the Jordanian militant who is blamed for many bloody attacks in Iraq.

Media reports have said Zarqawi might have been among a group of insurgents killed in a battle in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul on Saturday.

Vines told a defence department news briefing from Baghdad that "there is a DNA database of some of his relatives that is able to be compared against some of those who were killed there".

"So my expectation is, if he had been in one of those houses that were part of the objective, we could confirm that.

$25m US bounty on his head

"I have absolutely no reason to believe that he was one of those killed. ... It is possible, but I have no reason to believe it."

Zarqawi has a $25m US bounty on his head and Vines said: "We follow up relentlessly every possible lead, because Zarqawi has shown absolutely no remorse about killing his fellow Jordanians."

The general added: "He will attack mosques and assemblies.

"Certainly he will slaughter security forces of Iraq and the coalition if given the chance.

"So, we follow up relentlessly every lead."

- AFP