Al Zarqawi dood door luchtaanval

[Lex]

Ja, zijn we nu niet bezig off-topic te geraken? De beperkingen van het forum kan leiden tot allerlei interpretaties, als met op het juiste moment, de mogelijkheid te baat neemt om te knippen en te plakken.
Stop daar mee en laten we ons houden tot relevante discussies.

[sgt Rob]

??

hmm, als je deze link volgt en je scrollt naar "onrust in de wereld" zal je zien dat ik nu zijn dood op mijn geweten heb...

http://www.defensieforum.nl/Frontpage/index.php?option=com_smf&Itemid=7&

[Cobra4]

Grappig, ik las in de Forum index ""Al Zarqawi Dood Door Sine Pari" en dacht gelijk: Dat heeft-ie dan maar mooi voor wlkaar!

??

[sgt Rob]

Grappig, ik las in de Forum index ""Al Zarqawi Dood Door Sine Pari" en dacht gelijk: Dat heeft-ie dan maar mooi voor wlkaar!

[Sine Pari]

In the end, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi could not escape Task Force 145's "unblinking eye."
 
TF 145 is the latest name for the shifting collection of U.S. and British special operations units that has hunted the most wanted terrorist in Iraq for three years, and "the unblinking eye" is what its members call the fusion of intelligence and operations that allowed them to relentlessly peel away the layers of Zarqawi's al-Qaida in Iraq organization until the terror mastermind was left defenseless and almost alone.

When that moment came, at 6:15 p.m. on June 7, a hidden Delta Force reconnaissance and surveillance team from TF 145 watched as two 500-pound bombs dropped by an Air Force F-16 pulverized the safe house near Baqubah, in which Zarqawi; his spiritual advisor, Sheikh Abd Al Rahman; and four other people had taken refuge.

The house, located in a tiny farming hamlet called Hibhib, was leveled by the blast. Rahman, another man and three women are believed to have died in the strike, but Zarqawi was still breathing when Iraqi police arrived at the scene, Army Maj. Gen. Bill Caldwell said during a June 9 briefing from Baghdad. However, the terrorist leader died within moments.

Caldwell said earlier reports that a child also had been killed in the bombing were incorrect.

Zarqawi's death marks a high point in the history of Joint Special Operations Command, which provides most of the units that comprise TF 145, and is a serious — perhaps fatal — blow to Zarqawi's al-Qaida in Iraq terrorist group.

But observers say it is too soon to judge the impact on the wider war in Iraq, which includes a Sunni insurgency separate from Zarqawi's group and several Shiite militias vying for power.

"Things are not going to go away now," said Vali Nasr, a Middle East expert at the Naval Postgraduate School. "But it's now not as likely that we'll see an attack on Ayatollah Sistani or Najaf," he said, referring to Iraq's most influential Shiite cleric and its holiest Shiite shrine.

The strike that killed Zarqawi was the culmination of "a very long, painstaking, deliberate exploitation of intelligence, information-gathering, human sources, electronic, signal intelligence ... over a period of time," Caldwell said.

Rahman, Zarqawi's spiritual adviser, was the key. "He was identified several weeks ago ... through military sources from somebody inside Zarqawi's network," Caldwell said. "They were able to start tracking him, monitoring his movements and establishing when he was doing his link-ups with Zarqawi."

The capture of Sheikh Ahmed al-Dabash in Baghdad's Mansour district May 29, described by U.S. Central Command as "a major financier and facilitator of terrorism in Iraq," may have been another critical breakthrough, multiple sources said.

"You follow the money — and he was the money man," said an officer familiar with special operations in Iraq.

TF 145 tracked Rahman to a safe house about five miles west of Baqubah in the tiny hamlet of Hibhib, an isolated cluster of about 300 buildings, most of them made of sub-baked mud, and surrounded by miles of farms, orchards and fields.

Hibhib, which has seen a fair amount of insurgent activity, is almost 100 percent Sunni and is home to at least three prominent families who would have gladly given sanctuary to a man like Zarqawi, said Army Maj. Kreg Schnell, former intelligence officer for 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, which spent a year in Baqubah starting in February 2004.

Zarqawi "obviously had friends in the area who gave him meals and a place to sleep," Schnell said.

Indeed, U.S. intelligence had confirmed that Zarqawi would meet Rahman in Hibhib. A reconnaissance-surveillance team from Delta Force's B Squadron infiltrated the area to get "eyes on" the house, said a source in the special operations community. Sources said a Predator unmanned aerial vehicle was also overhead.

After slipping through coalition fingers on several occasions in the past three years, Zarqawi was now in the sights of U.S. forces.

It was, Caldwell said, "the first time that we ... had definitive, unquestionable information as to exactly where he was located," in a place where he could be hit "without causing collateral damage to other Iraqi civilians and personnel in the area."

Senior U.S. military leaders in Iraq discussed whether to launch a ground assault, but decided "they could not really go in on the ground without running the risk of having him escape," Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told reporters June 8 in Brussels, Belgium.

Air power on display

That left an airstrike as the only option.

Two F-16C Fighting Falcon jets were in the air on a routine on-call mission due to last four or five hours over central Iraq when the decision was made to launch the mission, Air Force Lt. Gen. Gary North, Central Command's air component commander, told reporters in the Pentagon on June 8.

The jets carried a mixed load of laser-guided and satellite-guided bombs and LITENING targeting pods equipped with laser designators to mark targets, as well as video cameras.

Caldwell said June 9 that at the time the order was given to launch a strike on the house, one of the two F-16s was receiving fuel from an airborne tanker, so only one aircraft made the bombing run.

The pilot knew there was a high-value target in the building, North said, but he declined to say whether the pilot was told that target was Zarqawi.

North also refused to name the pilot, the unit or the base from which the mission was flown. For the past year, most F-16Cs flying over Iraq have been staged out of Balad, a sprawling Army and Air Force complex about 50 miles north of Baghdad. The Air Force typically has the equivalent of two F-16 squadrons at Balad.

Flying at "medium" altitude — at least 20,000 feet — the pilot circled the safe house, noting how it was built, setting targeting coordinates and deciding which bombs to use. The pilot set his fuses so the bombs would explode inside the house, rather than on contact with the roof, in order to collapse the structure.

At 6:15 p.m., the F-16 dropped a 500-pound laser-guided GBU-12 bomb on the house, causing a massive explosion.

Using the cameras in the LITENING pod, the pilot peered through the smoke to observe the damage and decided a second bomb was needed. About 30 seconds later, the pilot released a 500-pound GBU-38 Joint Direct Attack Munition that was guided by Global Positioning System satellite signals. That also hit the home, leaving the building a smoking pile of rubble.

Iraqi security forces were the first to arrive on the ground — and found Zarqawi still alive, Caldwell said. They had placed the terrorist leader on a stretcher just as U.S. troops from Multi-National Division-North rolled in.

Zarqawi tried to get off the stretcher. Troops again secured him and attempted to start medical treatment, but he died within minutes, Caldwell said.

Coalition forces took Zarqawi's body to an undisclosed secure location, where his identity was confirmed by scars and tattoos he was known to have, and by his fingerprints, Caldwell said.

Gathering the puzzle pieces

TF 145 was responsible not only for gathering the intelligence that led to Zarqawi, but also for acting upon it swiftly, creating a cycle in which each set of raids yielded more intelligence, which in turn drove more raids.

Made up of a rotating set of units from Joint Special Operations Command, the task force, based at Balad, includes squadrons from the military's two "direct action" special-mission units — the Army's 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta, better known as Delta Force, and the Navy's SEAL Team 6, also known as Naval Special Warfare Development Group, as well as other Army and Air Force special operations elements and a variety of intelligence organizations.

The June 7 attack culminated about six weeks of focused effort.

"We had clear-enough evidence about a month-and-a-half ago that allowed us to start [getting] down to the point where we were able to prosecute the action ... against that safe house," Caldwell said, showing a slide that listed eight men in Zarqawi's organization captured or killed between April 6 and May 31.

But judging from Central Command's own press releases, Caldwell's slide only scratches the surface of TF 145 operations in recent weeks.

On April 16, a force of SEALs and Rangers attacked an al-Qaida in Iraq safe house in Yusufiyah, 20 miles southwest of Baghdad, killing five terrorists and capturing another five. On June 2, "wanted al-Qaida terrorist" Hasayn Ali Muzabir was killed near Balad.

Between those two missions, "coalition forces," the phrase often used by Central Command to disguise the participation of TF 145, captured or killed more than 100 members of al-Qaida in Iraq. Indeed, in a prophetic remark, Army Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch told reporters in Baghdad on May 4 that the coalition was "zooming in" on Zarqawi.

In Iraq, U.S. special operations forces have captured former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, tracked his sons Uday and Qusay to a hide-out where they were killed, and killed Zarqawi — who, because of the perception that his terrorist organization was such a massive obstacle to peace in Iraq, had become arguably the highest-priority individual target for the U.S. in the world.

The question is whether al-Qaida in Iraq can withstand the loss of its iconic leader, who earned grudging respect from U.S. special operators for his willingness to lead from the front.

One candidate may be Abu Ayyub al-Masri, an Egyptian whom Caldwell said met Zarqawi in Afghanistan in 2001 or 2002. U.S. operators have intelligence indicating al-Masri has had close contacts with Ayman Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden's chief deputy.

Caldwell said al-Masri "helped establish maybe the first al-Qaida cell that existed in the Baghdad area."

Analysts generally agree that although Zarqawi was the focus of heavy U.S. combat and propaganda efforts, he and his group were a relatively small facet of the Iraq insurgency and mounted a relatively small number of attacks.

Those attacks had a disproportionate effect, both in their violence and their political and sectarian aftermath, though Zarqawi's death may reduce the likelihood of his ultimate goal: igniting a massive civil war between Iraq's Sunni Muslim minority and the Shiite Muslims who control political life.

But it is also possible that Zarqawi's death will create space for other insurgent groups to focus more on the political process than violence, said Ahmed Hashim, a Naval War College professor who has written extensively on Iraq's insurgency. Jeffrey White, an analyst at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and a former Defense Intelligence Agency analyst, said Zarqawi's death, paradoxically, creates a new challenge for the Bush administration, which no longer has the specter of Iraq's most violent and fanatical terrorist to hold up as its enemy.

"We killed our bogeyman," White said. "A lot of effort went into making him enemy number one. If the violence continues, who do we blame?"

The key, Schnell said, is for coalition forces to press the advantage and deny the insurgency a new poster boy. "You have to keep cutting the head off," he said.

TF 145, of course, is working hard to do just that. Within hours of Zarqawi's June 7 death, 17 simultaneous raids were carried out in and around Baghdad, yielding "a tremendous amount" of information and intelligence that is "presently being exploited ... for further use," Caldwell said.

Another 39 operations were conducted the night of June 8, Caldwell said.

"This is a big oak tree that got shaken, so there's stuff falling all over the place," Schnell said.

The unblinking eye cannot afford to rest yet.  

Bron; ArmyTimes

[Grunt]

Ben eens benieuwd of die piloten die de luchtactie uitvoerden dan ook de betreffende bonus van 25 miljoen op hun loonstrookje aantreffen

[KapiteinRob]

Al-Zarqawi's drie zussen, alle drie in het zwart gekleed,

Goh, dat doen ze anders nooit.....

[Mokum Casual]

Famillie kwaad op al-Zarqawi en de VS

Als het nieuws van al-Zarqawi's dood zich door het Jordaanse Zarqa verspreidt, gaan zo'n vijftig jongens van 8 tot 14 jaar de straat op. Ze gooien stenen naar de verslaggevers. "Het zijn leugens! Al-Zarqawi leeft nog!", roept een van hen, Mohammed.

De jongen uit de geboorteplaats van de gedode terroristenleider zegt geen aanhanger van al-Zarqawi te zijn, maar hij is toch boos omdat zijn landgenoot is omgebracht door Amerikaans geweld.

"We gingen er al heel lang vanuit dat hij gedood zou worden", zegt al-Zarqawi's broer, Sayel al-Khalayleh, in het huis van de familie. "We verwachtten dat hij een martelaar zou worden. We hopen dat hij bij de martelaars in de hemel zal zijn."

Even later vertelt zijn dochter dat Sayel inmiddels naar het ziekenhuis is gebracht met hartkloppingen. Het nieuws van de dood van zijn broer heeft Sayel erg aangegrepen.

Dag de oordeels
De familieleden van Abu Musab al-Zarqawi zijn in het Jordaanse industriestadje bij elkaar gekomen om te rouwen.  Al-Khalayleh was een van de 57 bloedverwanten die vorig jaar hun handtekening zetten onder een krantenadvertentie waarin ze afstand namen van de terrorist.

Dat gebeurde na de zelfmoordaanslagen in Amman in november, waarbij 63 mensen omkwamen. Al-Zarqawi eiste de verantwoordelijkheid op voor het bloedbad. De familie schreef de koning dat ze de banden met hem zouden verbreken "tot de dag des oordeels".

Maar voor het huis staart een 13-jarig jongetje naar de menigte verslaggevers die zich bij de woning hebben verzameld. "Ik ben bedroefd over mijn oom", zegt hij. Hij had het nieuws op de Arabische nieuwszender al-Jazeera gehoord.

Al-Zarqawi's drie zussen, alle drie in het zwart gekleed, lijken door verdriet overmand als ze het huis van de familie binnenkomen. Ze willen niets zeggen.

Martelaar
De man van een van hen, Abu Qudama, wil wel wat kwijt. Hij is niet bedroefd over al-Zarqawi's dood. "Integendeel, we zijn blij omdat hij een martelaar is en in de hemel" zegt de man, die zelf in Afghanistan voor de Mujaheddin heeft gevochten.

Even later wordt Qudama gearresteerd als hij al-Zarqawi voor de camera van al-Jazeera prijst.

Bron: Associated Press/NOS Journaal

[Sine Pari]

De dood van Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi word hopenlijk een keerpunt in de voorduurende aanslaggen die plaats vinden in. Zelf als de aanslaggen maar om de helft zouden afnemen zou dit een teken zijn voor de Iraqische bevolking dat er hoop is op een normaal leven in de toekomst. Een ander bijverschijnsel zou het eventueel prijs geven van de ophoud plaatsen van verder terroristen door de locale bevolking kunnen zijn.

"I have no sense of relief, just sadness that another human being had to die."
—Michael Berg, father of beheaded American kidnapping victim Nicholas Berg, saying that he blamed President Bush for his son's death

("Ik heb geen gevoel van opluchting, enkelt bedroefd dat een ander mens moest sterven." - Michael Berg, de vader van het onthoofde Amerikaans ontvoeringsslachtoffer Nicholas Berg zegt, dat President Bush schuldig is aan de dood van zijn zoon.)
Nu wil ik President Bush hier niet heilig spreken of slecht over de doden spreken maar niemand heeft de heer Berg gedwongen naar Iraq te gaan. Mischien had de heer Berg er verstandiger aan gedaan niet met bepaalde elementen in Iraq in contact te treden.

Oh en eer ik het vergeet;
OSAMA GUESS WHO'S NEXT!!!

[Lex]

May He Rot in Hell'

How the world reacted to Zarqawi's death.

Newsweek Updated: 10:18 a.m. ET June 8, 2006

June 8, 2006 - The news that U.S. aircraft had killed Iraq Al Qaeda leader Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi and seven aides in a strike on Wednesday drew immediate and emotional responses from around the world. While political leaders welcomed the news, most warned that it would not stop the violence that continued to claim lives throughout Iraq. In the Arab world, responses ranged from joy to regret, with a Web site used by Al Qaeda promising to continue the "holy war." Excerpts from some key statements:

"U.S. forces delivered justice to the most wanted terrorist in Iraq ... The ideology of terror has lost one of its most visible and aggressive leaders."
—President George W. Bush, in a statement reacting to the death of Zarqawi

"The death of al-Zarqawi is a strike against Al Qaeda in Iraq and therefore a strike against Al Qaeda everywhere. We should have no illusions. We know they will continue to kill, we know there are many, many obstacles to overcome. But they also know that our determination to defeat them is total."
—British Prime Minister Tony Blair

"This is a message for all those who embrace violence, killing and destruction to stop and to [retreat] before it's too late. It is an open battle with all those who incite sectarianism."
—Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, telling a Baghdad news conference that "al-Zarqawi was eliminated"

"The reported death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is great news for the people of Iraq, the real victims of his murderous behavour."
—Australian Prime Minister John Howard

"The man was an animal and he deserved what he got. And may he rot in hell."
—Paul Bigley, the brother of Ken Bigley, a British engineer beheaded by Zarqawi's group in 2004

"I have no sense of relief, just sadness that another human being had to die."
—Michael Berg, father of beheaded American kidnapping victim Nicholas Berg, saying that he blamed President Bush for his son's death

"We want to give you the joyous news of the martyrdom of the mujahed sheik Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. The death of our leaders is life for us. It will only increase our persistence in continuing holy war so that the word of God will be supreme."
—Web site statement signed by "Abu Abdel-Rahman al-Iraqi," identified as the deputy leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq

"People of Islam, God will not let our enemies celebrate and spread corruption in the ground. Expect the right that was stolen to come back to us and destroy the Crusaders."
—A Web site used by Al Qaeda in Iraq

"I thank God and the Iraqi government for this huge gift. I don't know how I'm going to celebrate but I know that this is the happiest day of my life."
—Retired Iraqi teacher Isa Younis, 66

"We received this news with great joy, but our greater joy will be the departure of the occupation forces from Iraq."
—Sahib al-Amiri, a member of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's group in the southern Iraqi city of Basra

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13203235/site/newsweek/

[Lex]

'Egyptenaar volgt Al-Zarkawi vermoedelijk op'

BAGDAD - De Amerikaanse krijgsmacht verwacht dat de de woensdag gedode terroristenleider Aboe Moesab al-Zarkqawi wordt opgevolgd door zijn Egyptische rechterhand Aboe Al Masri.

Dat heeft een woordvoerder van het Amerikaanse leger in Irak donderdag gezegd.

Volgens Caldwell gaan de Amerikanen de gangen van de Egyptenaar al een tijdje na. Hij zou zich in 2002 in Irak hebben gevestigd, nog voor de door de VS geleide invasie in maart 2003. ,,Mogelijk heeft hij geholpen met de oprichting van de eerste cel van Al Qaida in de buurt van Bagdad", aldus Caldwell.

Volgens de Amerikaanse militair is Al Masri betrokken geweest bij het maken van bommen. Hij zou zijn opgeleid in Afghanistan.

Bron: De Telegraaf.

[mac]

Werd eens tijd. Er zal wel een vervanger zijn, maar dit is zeker wel een klap voor de terrorristen.

Wat is je bron eigenlijk, want ik kan nog geen Nederlandse bron vinden.

[Thijsz]

WASHINGTON - De leider van Al Qaida in Irak, Abu Mussab Al Zarqawi, is dood. De topterrorist stierf 8 kilometer ten noorden van de Iraakse stad Baquba door een luchtaanval. Zijn lichaam is geïdentificeerd.


De Iraakse premier Nuri Al Maliki en de bevelhebber van de Amerikaanse strijdkrachten in Irak, George Casey, maakte de dood van Al Zarqawi donderdagochtend bekend tijdens een triomfantelijke persconferentie. "Dit is een boodschap aan allen die geweld gebruiken in Irak en het is voor hen een slechte boodschap: Abu Mussab Al Zarqawi is geëlimineerd", zei Maliki. De dood van Al Zarqawi werd in de zaal met luid applaus begroet.

Volgens Casey waren Iraakse agenten na de luchtactie als eersten ter plekke. De generaal maakt later op de dag meer details bekend.

Volgens de Amerikaanse zender ABC had de luchtactie plaats op woensdagavond om zes uur. Gevechtshelikopters namen een huis onder vuur bij Baquba, 65 kilometer ten noorden van Bagdad.

Gewond

"Zarqawi was blijkbaar eerst gewond. De Amerikanen vonden hem, droegen hem over aan de Irakezen en hij overleed later aan zijn verwondingen", aldus het televisiestation.

Jordanië haastte zich donderdag een rol op te eisen in de operatie die de geboren Jordaniër Al Zarqawi fataal is geworden. Volgens een Jordaanse functionaris zouden daarbij Amerikaanse en Jordaanse inlichtingendiensten en Amerikaanse commando's betrokken zijn geweest.

Keerpunt

De meest gezochte man in Irak had een prijs op zijn hoofd van 25 miljoen dollar. Hij werd gezien als drijvende kracht achter het bloedige geweld dat Irak al jaren teistert. Maliki riep de opstandelingen in Irak op de dood van hun leider als keerpunt te zien. "Dit is een boodschap aan allen die geweld zochten, om tot bezinning te komen voordat het te laat is."

De strijd tegen terroristen gaat volgens Maliki onverminderd door. "Elke keer als er een Al Zarqawi tevoorschijn komt, zullen we hem doden. We blijven iedereen die zijn pad volgt het hoofd bieden. Het is openlijk oorlog tussen ons", verklaarde de premier.

Dreiging

Casey noemde Al Qaida in Irak ondanks de dood van de leider nog altijd een dreiging. Ook de Amerikaanse ambassadeur in Irak, Zalmay Khalilzad, zei dat het nieuws geen einde maakt aan het geweld in Irak.

De Britse premier Tony Blair reageerde donderdag verheugd op de dood van de terroristenleider. Hij noemde het "zeer belangrijk voor Irak" en "zeer goed nieuws", meldde de BBC.

Regering

De Iraakse premier kon donderdag niet alleen triomferen vanwege de dood van Al Zarqawi. Hij heeft ook eindelijk zijn regering rond. Het parlement stemde in met de door Maliki voorgedragen ministers van Binnenlandse Zaken en Defensie, die in zijn kabinet nog altijd ontbraken.