Zarqawi killed in Iraq?
Balaji Reddy, Special Correspondent
October 16, 2004

American military assault in Iraq on the militants may have created a major blow for the Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and his organization in Falluja! 

According to some sources he may have tried to escape but then died in the process. A rumor was spreading in Iraq that Zarqawi was captured by the American military. 
The U.S. military said on Saturday that reports that Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi had been detained in Iraq were not credible. "We have heard those reports and we do not believe they are true," Lieutenant Colonel Steve Boylan, a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad, told Reuters. "We have been in contact with the marines based around Falluja and we have heard nothing about those reports through our channels," he said. 

An Iraqi defense ministry spokesman also denied the report. The official Kuwait News Agency earlier reported that Zarqawi was believed to be among 10 militants seized in raids in rebel-held Falluja, west of Baghdad. Another senior U.S. officer also denied the report.

"There was a senior cleric who we seized earlier today and there may have been some confusion," Lieutenant Colonel Eric Schnaible told Reuters. Zarqawi, with a $25 million price on his head, is the United States'' main enemy at large in Iraq and is blamed for some of the worst insurgent violence against the U.S.-backed interim Iraqi administration. 

But some Iraqis say Washington exaggerates the threat from Zarqawi to disguise the strength of Iraq's homegrown insurgency, and Falluja residents say they have no idea where he is, despite warnings from the interim administration that they face tough action unless they give him up. 

The official Kuwait news agency KUNA had quoted Iraqi security sources as saying a man suspected of being Zarqawi was detained during U.S.-led military operations in Falluja on Friday. 

The man resembled Zarqawi and DNA tests were being conducted, the sources said. There were no further details. Zarqawi's Tawhid and Jihad group claimed responsibility for suicide bombings on Thursday that killed up to four Americans in the heart of Baghdad's fortified Green Zone, seat of the government and home to the U.S. and British embassies.