Al-Qaeda's Zarqawi killed by U.S. aircraft

[Siegmund]

Al-Qaeda's Zarqawi killed by U.S. aircraft
By Mariam Karouny

June 8, 2006 - 10:30 AM



BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. aircraft killed al Qaeda leader in Iraq Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the insurgent leader who masterminded the death of hundreds in suicide bombings and was blamed for the videotaped beheading of foreign captives.

In one of the most significant developments in Iraq since the capture of Saddam Hussein in 2003, Jordanian-born Zarqawi was killed in a U-S.-Iraqi operation which was assisted by intelligence information from Amman, officials said on Thursday.

Zarqawi, whom Osama bin Laden called the prince of al Qaeda in Iraq, had come to symbolise the radical Islamic insurgency against U.S. occupation, but it was too early to say what effect his death would have on Sunni-Shi'ite tensions racking Iraq.

"Today Zarqawi has been terminated," Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki announced at a televised news conference with the top U.S. commander in Iraq, General George Casey, prompting applause and cheering from Iraqi journalists.

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