Troops find al-Zarqawi HQ
2004-11-18 21:22
Fallujah - US troops sweeping through Fallujah on Thursday said they believe they have found a "training centre" for the insurgent group headed by Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi
In video footage shot by an embedded CNN crew, soldiers walked through one imposing building with concrete columns with a large sign in Arabic on the wall reading "Al-Qaeda Organiation" and "There is no God but Allah and Muhammad is his messenger."
Al-Zarqawi's group, al-Qaeda in Iraq, is considered the deadliest terrorist network in the country, held responsible for a string of deadly car bombings and gruesome kidnappings and beheadings of foreign hostages, including American Nicholas Berg.
Inside the building, US soldiers found documents, old computers, notebooks, photographs and copies of the Qu'ran.
The footage also showed that flight patterns were found for aircraft, along with plans and instructions for how to shoot them down.
There were also two letters inside the house, one from al-Zarqawi giving instructions to two of his lieutenants in the region. Another sought money and help from the terrorist leader.
Iraqi authorities have acknowledged that al-Zarqawi, along with other Fallujah insurgent leaders, escaped from the rebel bastion west of Baghdad where he was based.
In neighbouring Jordan, authorities detained al-Zarqawi's nephew near the Jordanian-Iraqi border, a distant relative and a clergyman close to the family said on Thursday.
The clergyman and the relative, both of whom spoke on condition of anonymity, said security officials had informed the family that Mohammed al-Harahsheh had been detained last month.
The relative said al-Harahsheh was being questioned on suspicion of attempting to infiltrate into Iraq to join his militant uncle.
Jordan has been trying to prevent Jordanians and other Arabs from slipping across its desert border to fight American troops in Iraq.
Al-Zarqawi is wanted by both Jordanian and American authorities.
The US has offered $25m for information leading to his capture.
His group recently announced its allegiance to al-Qaeda,
A Jordanian military court has sentenced al-Zarqawi to death in absentia for taking part in a terror conspiracy targeting Americans and Israelis in Jordan.
- AP