(To be read in continuation of my earlier article onZarqawi's death)
At their first press conference on the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Amirof the Al Qaeda in Iraq, held at Baghdad on June 8,2006, the Iraqi and USauthorities gave the following version of his death: Theyhad received pin-point intelligence that Zarqawi, his spiritual guide and someothers were to meet in a safe house.After confirming theirpresence there, they made precision air strikes on the safe house dropping two 500-lb bombs. Thereafter, an Iraqi party went there and found Zarqawi andothers dead. An American party reached the spot subsequently. They managed toconfirm his identity through comparison of his physical appearance,scars on his body and finger prints.
US army authorities showed a photograph of the upper part of his body, butdid not show the body itself. One noticed that the face did not show any majormarks of disfigurement, which a powerful bomb blast would have normally caused.
When Rajiv Gandhi, our former Prime Minister, was blown up by the LiberationTigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in May,1991, his body was blown to pieces. Only hisdisfigured head was recovered, which helped in the identification. In theAfghanistan- Pakistan border areas and in Yemen, the USA's Central IntelligenceAgency (CIA) had killed some terrorists from its Predator aircraft. In most ofthese cases, the bodies were reportedly blown to pieces and could not berecovered intact.
As one followed the first Baghdad press conference on the TV, an intriguingquestion which kept coming to mind was how did the body remain intact despitetwo powerful bombs, which blew the safe-houseitself to smithereens.
The puzzlement has been strengthened following another press briefing held bythe US Army authorities at Baghdad on June 9,2006. At this briefing, theyvolunteered the information that the Iraqi party, which reached the safe housevenue first, actually found Zarqawi alive. He continued to be alive even whenthe American party reached there. He then succumbed to his injuries as he wasbeing carried on a stretcher.
The fact that his body was intact explains how confirmation through comparisonof physical appearance, finger prints and scars was possible. But, how is it theIraqi and American authorities at the first press conference, which was heldmore than 12 hours after the air strikes, were not aware that he was actuallyfound alive and died only as he was being carried on a stretcher? The explanation given at the second press briefing, which was held almost 24hours after the first, was that they had not been briefed on this point beforethe first press conference.
While there is no doubt now about Zarqawi's death, which has been confirmed bypro-Al Qaeda websites, the American and Iraqi version that he was killed in anair strike based on pin point intelligence seems less acceptable. Why did theAmericans and the Iraqis have to come out with their second briefing? They couldhave just kept quiet after having made a categorical statement at the firstbriefing that Zarqawi was found dead when the Iraqi party reached the spot.
One possibility is that the Americans and the Iraqis apprehend that Al Qaedamight come out with its own version of the incident to allege that Zarqawi wascaught alive and shot dead at point blank range. They might have sought topre-empt this through their second version.
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B. Ramanis Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, New Delhi,and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai.
