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The hunt ends

Jun-10-2006 » Filed Under: Iraq News

The following is a very in depth description of the coalition effort to find al-Zarqawi.

Link to Full Article
By Sean D. Naylor, Army Times

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.

The article continues.


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