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| Iraq |
| Zarqawi narrowly escaped capture 2 weeks ago |
| 2006-05-02 |
| American and allied forces narrowly missed capturing the Al Qaeda leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi two weeks ago, according to a report by veteran correspondent Sean Naylor in Defense News, a leading defense publication. A special forces raid in Yusufiyah, a sun-scorched settlement 20 miles south of Baghdad, is believed to have missed Mr. Zarqawi by a mere thousand yards on the night of April 16. Based on an informant's tip, special operators stormed an insurgent safe house - killing five enemy fighters, and capturing another five. Later they learned by interrogating prisoners that Mr. Zarqawi himself was sleeping a few buildings away. Yesterday American intelligence officers said that on the video released last week Mr. Zarqawi was brandishing weapons that could only have been taken from dead Americans, which is believed to be a clear sign from Mr. Zarqawi to Al Qaeda followers worldwide that he alone of the organization's leadership is directly and regularly engaging American forces. Military spokesmen have refused to confirm or deny the account of Mr. Zarqawi's near capture. "When USSOCOM provides forces to a regional combatant commander, like Central Command, the regional combatant commander takes the queries because that is whose operations our forces are participating in," said Ken McGraw, deputy public affairs officer at U.S. Special Operations Command. "In this case neither CENTCOM nor Multi-National Forces-Iraq can provide you any more information than I can." Intelligence and military officials, who have been scrutinizing frame-by-frame the symbol laden video, said yesterday he is pictured with two weapons, the M-249 and the M-4, deputy public affairs officer at U.S. Special Operations Command, Ken McGraw told the Sun. They could only have come from the hands of dead Americans. The M-4 and M-249 are not issued to allied forces or used by Iraqis, he said. In the Zarqawi video, Mr. McGraw said that over the shoulder of the terrorist leader, who is sitting in the center of a crescent of masked men, there is a gun leaning against the wall. "That is an M-4," Mr. McGraw confirmed. In a later sequence, Mr. Zarqawi appears in the open desert leading a cadre of masked militants and firing a machine gun. That weapon is an M-249, Mr. McGraw said. The inclusion of two weapons used exclusively by American forces is thought of significant symbolic value, but Mr. McGraw refused to speculate. "The intelligence people are certainly looking at every detail, including every type of weapon," he said. "He's flaunting it a bit. Brandishing an American weapon is a kind of an in-your-face thing," said Lieutenant Colonel Bill Cowan, a retired marine officer who spent the bulk of his career in special operations. Colonel Cowan remains in close contact with special-forces operators. Mr. Zarqawi "is probably not using those weapons" in combat, Colonel Cowan said. He referred to an e-mail from a non-commissioned officer serving in Iraq that circulated a few months ago in military circles complaining that nearly every type of American combat rifle tended to clog with sand and dust. The enemy's preferred weapons, the AK-47 and SKS carbine, have wider clearances and do not jam. So Mr. Zarqawi's use of the M-249 is probably just for show, Colonel Cowan said. "It is more of a battlefield trophy." By using American guns, "Zarqawi is demonstrating that he has the ability and the power to take them from us," a Zarqawi specialist at West Point's Combating Terrorism Center, Brian Fishman, said. "He is trying to send a message that he has had success fighting Americans." The terror leader is also using the weapons to distinguish himself from other leaders of the global Salafi movement, of which Al Qaeda is a part. "He is trying to demonstrate that he not just a guy who talks [like other terrorist leaders], but that he is the one fighting on the ground," said Mr. Fishman. "He is trying to show that he's an operational commander. He's a fighter, unlike other terrorist leaders. He is willing to stick out his neck and fight." Mr. Fishman says his view of Mr. Zarqawi's motivations is supported by a 2005 speech in which the terrorist contrasted the early followers of Muhammad with today's terrorist leaders. "They led the masses and abandoned the transient pleasures in life," he said. "They preferred the reward of eternal life. They abandoned their palaces and houses and chose to live in caves and mountains. They did so to protect their religion and couple their words with deeds." Mr. Zarqawi, sometimes called as al-Gharib (the Stranger) in Islamist circles, sees himself as apart from - and superior to - other terrorist leaders. Intelligence and military officials meticulously scrutinize every Al Qaeda tape for clues about where it was made and for symbols that, in Islamic culture, are invested with special meaning and significance. A consensus view about the firearms or their meaning has yet to emerge from American intelligence officers and it may take a few weeks before they settle on a definitive interpretation. "Centcom isn't able to speculate on what Zarqawi may have been thinking or why he included those weapons in the video," a spokeswoman for Centcom, the command that oversees operations in Iraq, Lieutenant Corey Schultz, said. The CIA, through a spokesman, declined to comment on the firearms featured in the Zarqawi tape or on their symbolic meaning. Mark Mansfield, at the National Counter-Terrorism Center, also declined to comment. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #7 Whilst it's a pisser that he keeps getting away, I'm reminded of something the IRA said after the Brighton bombing where they missed killing Mrs Thatcher; "We only have to be lucky once, you have to be lucky everytime". Keep throwing those dice Zarq, sooner or later you're gonna chuck some snake-eyes... |
| Posted by: Tony (UK) 2006-05-02 14:50 |
| #6 Missed by THAT much! |
| Posted by: doc 2006-05-02 14:02 |
| #5 Sick and tired of reading articles about how we "almost" capture this guy. If we have to put 50,000 spies and special forcers after this guy to get him, lets do it and kill him immediately. |
| Posted by: bgrebel 2006-05-02 12:59 |
| #4 I "almost" won the Virginia Lottery last week. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2006-05-02 11:15 |
| #3 Shooda, cooda, wooda. |
| Posted by: Perfesser 2006-05-02 09:19 |
| #2 Yeh yeh yeh. He was with Elvis. I can make news weekley by saying " Almost caught Bin laden" "Nearly saved the world". When he's captured, tell me. Until then, I look at it like you have nothing else to do that day. |
| Posted by: plainslow 2006-05-02 08:27 |
| #1 Any truth to the reports that a copy of the Zarq tape was seized in a safe house by MNF weeks prior to it's release? If so, did it prompt an earlier then planned release? |
| Posted by: DepotGuy 2006-05-02 08:10 |