Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi Is Dead...Again (UPDATED)

 

SCROLL DOWN FOR UPDATE BREAKING

Crross posted @ NewsBusters

I shall keep you posted as the news comes in throughout the day, ABC news came in first, it is still 3.00am EST, and nothing yet on the Blogs. [Oops correction, sorry Vinnie] I am dying to see what the reactions will be as the news spreads throughout the Jihadi cyberspace. Allahu Akbar indeed.

The press is all a flutter now, news agencies around the world are buzzing with the news that the the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the militant who led a bloody campaign of suicide bombings, kidnappings and hostage beheadings in Iraq, is dead...again. I say again, because his death has been a subject of flurried debate several times during the course of the last couple of years. This time he really is dead, and losing his head does not really count, nor does setting the Muslim mind on fire. Shame though, he was scheduled for martyrdom, but I guess the 72 virgins will after all prove the better option.

He has reportedly been killed in a U.S. air raid northeast of Baghdad [confirmed now], as a result of 17 raids overall

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said al-Zarqawi was killed along with seven aides Wednesday evening in a house 30 miles northeast of Baghdad in the volatile province of Diyala.

"Today, al-Zarqawi was eliminated," al-Maliki told a news conference, drawing loud applause from reporters as he was flanked by U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad and U.S. Gen. George Casey, the top U.S. commander in Iraq.

Al-Maliki said the air strike was the result of intelligence reports provided to Iraqi security forces by residents in the area, and U.S. forces acted on the information.

"Those who disrupt the course of life, like al-Zarqawi, will have a tragic end," he said.

Khalilzad added "the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is a huge success for Iraq and the international war on terror."

Andrew Cochran @ Counterterrorism Blog confirms that "facial recognition, fingerprints, and DNA testing confirmed he was killed at 6:15 pm on June 7 in Iraq".

Are these guys for real, and whose side are they on exactly. Their own, yeah that sums it up

“Where is Osama? Where are the batillions of trained Iraqis? Doesn’t matter, we got this guy, right? We wrote a 25 million check as a reward, and get a new headline to bump off Haditha.”

Everyone picking up on the news now: Michelle Malkin, one of the first as always has the best round up and a video, Pajamas Media has what is turning out to be an exhaustive round up (don't miss their podcast), Iraq The Model is on the ground and Gary Gross is fast off the mark, and so was Beth @ MRWC, Ed Morrissey @ Captain's Quarters has more, Mark in Mexico has been up all night, PoliPundit, Ed Driscoll is up, Hot Air and again the latest from Allah, who notes the Iraqis dancing in the street, Wizbang, Mary Katherine Ham @ Hugh Hewitt, Counterterrorism Blog, Rick Moran delivers the slam dunk, Outside The Beltway is hot on the case, Marc Schulman's great blog American Future, Blackfive, my friend Patrick Belton @ OxBlog, Lorie Byrd @ Wizbang has more. and so does Jim @ Gateway Pundit.

Mark Finkelstein @ NewsBusters is already onto the media spin, and Tim Graham on the MSM's Bush derangement syndrome, and the father of the beheaded Nicholas Berg who is in a typical left wing forgiving mode. Already called a stunt!

President Bush to make a statement @ 7.30am EST. Here is the quick summary. Austin Bay live bloggs the speech and provides the transcript. The Baghdad briefing, including video.

Pat Santy has an incredible round-up from the members of the reality based community. Ahem.

The Anchoress reminds us that the oil prices fell on the announcement, making it an interesting day for the markets. Scott Johnson provides the best headline thus far. Kenny Pierce is wondering if it's time to pull out the great classic @ Onion "Hijackers Suprised To Find Selves In Hell"

From Gen. Casey, head of U.S. led forces in Iraq:

“Tips and intelligence from Iraqi senior leaders from his network led forces to al-Zarqawi and some of his associates, who were conducting a meeting approximately eight kilometers (five miles) north of Baquba, when the air strike was launched.”

UPDATE: More @ LGF, Althouse, Protein Wisdom, Stop The ACLU, JustOneMinute, Ninth State, Mudville Gazette,  The Sundries Shack, The RCP Blog, QandO, The American Thinker,  Right Winged News, Big Lizards,The Real Ugly American, Sister Toldjah, Andrew Sullivan, Gay Patriot, Jihad Watch, Vodkapundit, Argghhhh! Political Pit Bull, Sister Toldjah, Gina Cobb, Betsy Newmark, Blue Star Chronicles, Flopping Aces, Texas Rainmaker, Davids Medienkritik, Tiger Hawk, Brothers Judd Blog, The Astute Blogger, A Blog For All, Jeremiahkovka, Woman Honor Thyself, Right Winged, Tim Blair,  Small Town Veteran, Florida Masochist, Iowa Voice, Suzie, America's North Shore Journal, Tel-Chai-Nation, Sand Box, Leaning Straight Up, Blue Crab Boulevard, The Political Pitbull, Freedom For Some, In Search For Eutopia.

UPDATE BREAKING: It's a bad day for terrorists. Israeli airstrike kills no 2 on most wanted list. "Another one bites the dust" from Michelle Malkin

UPDATE JUNE 9TH: Some more details emerge.

Comments

[Ghost Dansing]

"Making the left look bad only requires that you let them be honest about what they believe about the country they call home and it's duly elected government, and it's world class all volunteer military. It's really easy to let them hang themselves with their own tongues. I hope they all choke on the great news today."

Oh.."the left"...that's the problem "the left"...

Hey...I just found out Zarqawi's dead! You think Zarqawi is a Left-Right wing political issue? A Republican-Democratic Party issue? Liberal vs. Conservative? How so? You think Zarqawi was a leftest? A Liberal? Or is was he a conservative religious extremist in his own right?

You don't even know what "the left" is...one who's been Honking on the Republican BoBo for so long their's signs of physical oxygen starvation to go along with incipient signs of ideological inbreeding.

As usual, the etiology of ignorance has both environmental and genetic components.

[brian]

Making the left look bad only requires that you let them be honest about what they believe about the country they call home and it's duly elected government, and it's world class all volunteer military. It's really easy to let them hang themselves with their own tongues. I hope they all choke on the great news today.

[Kenny Pierce]

If you're interested in what the Left is saying, Dr. Sanity is keeping a roundup going -- though you should of course remember that Dr. Sanity, being no fan of the Left, is probably cherry-picking the quotes that make the Left look bad. Caveat lector.

[Angel]

Yes yes..Booyah!..great work Alexandra..Hope u receive my trackback again! :)

[gringoman]

In the short term, at least, the bagging of Zarqawi is a cruel blow to Democrats, Clintonistas,MSM, dedicated Soros workers, "Pinch" Sulzberger's NY Times, GloboLeftniki etc. (As for The Daily Moulitsas, would somebody else read and tell, so I don't have to?) It's especially threatening because it does what Tony Snow is still working on and Bush has always had a problem managing. That is, it makes Bush look like he knows what he's doing in Iraq. And who can say? Might this even reflect on the documented occasions when the smart Bubba Clinton rejected the chance to take out Osama bin Laden, due to the possibility of "innocent" casualties and collateral damage?

But the true pathos and nature of the Left, at the moment, is probably best seen in the case of Michael Berg, a very valuable study in Bush Derangement Syndrome. He gives you the real thing, no fancy lawyer pirouettes. This proud old progressive (I used to know people like him in Philly once) is the father of Nick Berg, the unlucky young man who had his head sawed off in Iraq. Old man Berg, to this day, blames it all on Bush. He disputes even the cumulative evidence showing that Zarqawi himself did the beheading of Nick Berg. "Why should I believe it? Because Bush says so?"

The old progressive knows how Bush and his oil cronies and the U.S. imperialists are always lying. His reaction to the news of Zarqawi's death? "I can understand how his family is feeling...."

It's practically Anton Chekhov. Laughter and tears.

He has even learned "forgiveness." And so he forgives his son's executioners. But there's no word that he "forgives" George Bush. (In fairness, he doesn't claim to be a Christian.)

The relatives from the dead beheader's tribe in Jordan are being quoted as mourning this "loss to Islam" and praying for a thousand Zarqawis to "fight the Americans." Michael Berg, anti-war activist and now Green Paryt candidate for Congress, hasn't revealed whether his secular sympathies would permit him to join in these Islamic prayers.

gringoVision congratulates the American warriors who did their job and did it superbly. Similar will be extended to President Bush when he orders the Americans who served in Iraq and who are now in the brig at Camp Pendleton, CA. to be unshackled---as unshackled and with as many privileges as the jihad detainees have at Guantanomo.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
"Hadith Crucifixion." Illustrated.

[Kenny Pierce]

Seems a good day to dig back through the Onion's archives and resurrect this (WARNING: very non-Baptist) classic: Hijackers Suprised To Find Selves In Hell.

[brian]

I like what Blackfive, Uncle Jimbo and Froggy had to say the most.

Adios, Asshole!

"Welcome to Hell, here's your Pineapple..."

terriffic news for Iraq, America and the world at large. Jihad denied, got straight to hell and 72 filthy stinking goats. What a beautiful day it is for freedom, eh Alexandra?

[Kenny Pierce]

[laughing] Huan, it isn't fair to call the lunatics of Democratic Underground "the Left" -- that's tremendously unfair to voices of relative calmness and sanity and bipartisanship like, say, Howard Dean.

But if you want to see paranoid, hate-blinded, desperate-to-avoid-facing-truth folly taken to nuclear levels (which, being an uncharitable cynic, I personally find highly amusing), you could not do better than to go stroll through the comments on this story over at DU.

But I'm totally serious, I genuinely would prefer not to see that insanity taken as characteristic of "the Left" because the Democratic Underground is to the Democratic Party...well, more or less what the Rev. Phelps is to the Democratic Party. It's a lunatic asylum where the inmates are all self-committed. I link not to enlighten you about "the attitude of the Left," but just to say, "Hey, there's a freak-show carnival over there that's got some stuff you just have to see to believe."

In the meantime, I think everyone here can join in saying to the Zark: welcome to Hell, you bastard.

[Huan]

i wonder how the left will respond ... or not respond, to this news

[Jeremayakovka]

Looks like everyone has been up all night for this one! I call June 8, "Z-Day".

[North by Northwest]

This is for real. It has to be, if for no other reason than the Kossacks screams "long live Zarqawi!!! By my reckoning he's been dead for years. Great photo-op though. But what news are they trying to keep hidden from us?"

How can we do business with an opposition like this. I shake my head in view of such rabid idiocy; these guys are so brainwashed, it's akin to a severe mental disorder in which their thoughts and emotions are so impaired that any ability to process facts and reality in an calm and rational manner is forever lost. No matter, if they lived in a world of their own; but they don't. I wonder when they all convert to Islam so that they can take their rabid hatred to the next level and start killing with the blessing of their newly adopted 'Führer'. Incredible. Project this kind of mindset 5-10 years forward, there's no telling where these millions of mental Zombies will take their execration.

[hNAV]

GREAT NEWS...

Good to see the fighting 101st keyboardists covering the story...

Fox News Confirmed the Death around 5 AM EASTERN TIME

Really enjoy your blog.

Thank you.