Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi is dead

[gcdevil22]

just on NBC News

[PVVikeFan]

There is a special place in Hell reserved for him. May he burn for eternity.

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, al-Qaida's leader in Iraq who led a bloody campaign of suicide bombings and kidnappings, has been killed in an air strike, U.S. and Iraqi officials said Thursday, adding that his identity was confirmed by fingerprints and a look at his face. It was a major victory in the U.S.-led war in Iraq and the broader war on terror.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said al-Zarqawi was killed along with seven aides Wednesday evening in a remote area 30 miles northeast of Baghdad in the volatile province of Diyala, just east of the provincial capital of Baqouba, al-Maliki said.

Loud applause broke out among the reporters and soldiers as al-Maliki, flanked by U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad and U.S. Gen. George Casey, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, told a news conference that "al-Zarqawi was eliminated."?

I would have loved to have handed him a football just as he realized he was dying.

[Unchained]

WONDERFUL NEWS!!! I cannot tell you how pumped I am about that. He's the [censored] I have wanted all along. Thanks for the news guys. You all just made my day.

[Unchained]

I am watching the story on CNN. You all know how they say that folks lead a charmed life? Ever pay attention to Christine Ammanpur? That women is reporting in the middle of battle, bullets nicking her hair in a freshly bombed hotel in Iraq more times than not when you see her. I know she makes the big bling no doubt. If it was me or you, we'd be killed on our first assignment. God has a plan for that lady.

Oh Yeah another main player taken out. Seems there is some good news on the news.
Hope he got a glimpse of his virgins on his way to hell. Cause that is all he is gonna see of them.
Him and all his towel head friends.

[imported_biggamesjames]

Good job by the good guys to take him out. Probably saved thousands of innocent lives with him being killed. Just think, if we had left Iraq too soon he would still be on the loose.

[friedtaters]

Congratulations too the US and Iraqi forces. But the insurgency is far from over.
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[Unchained]

And we have lost thousands of lives being in Iraq for this long. I guess it all depends on who you ask, or their point of view. Yes, I am thrilled to hear of this man's passing, but as thrilled as I am, I am even more heartbroken over the men and women that we have had to mourn and bury.

Not really he, was on the most wanted listed, of those who were being hunted.
Don't underestimate our CIA or our special op's units.
What some don't understand about my problems with Iraq. We don't have to have thousands there, in harms way, to do what we need to do.
This one strike didn't take but some good intel and hitting the right objects.
This was just one big fish in a stagnant pond of towel waving crap. There is still much to do and much for the Iraqi people to do, to end their own civil unrest, and hatred.

The death of Al Qaeda leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in Iraq showed deep splits on Thursday between Arabs who see the Iraqi insurgency as resistance to occupation and those who say al Qaeda gives Arabs and Muslims a bad name.

But few ordinary Arabs or analysts expected that the killing of the Jordanian-born militant would have much effect in reducing the level of violence in Iraq.

Some Arab citizens hailed Zarqawi as a hero for his role in the insurgency but others welcomed his death as a form of justice for the civilians killed in bombings by his group, which calls itself al Qaeda in Iraq.

Another view was that the United States, anxious to find a scapegoat for its troubles in Iraq, deliberately demonized him and exaggerated his significance as a militant leader.

Zarqawi was killed on Wednesday night in a U.S. air raid in Baquba, 65 km (40 miles) north of Baghdad.

"He died for the sake of God. After giving so much and having such incredible courage, Abu Musab the lion left us after humiliating the Americans. Pray for his soul," Khaled al-Saleh wrote on the Web site Montada.

"Thank God this wayward infidel is dead," wrote a chatter identified as Azizi on another Web site. "All true believers have been relieved of his evil."

Abdullah, a 29-year-old Saudi secretary, put the third point of view: "I consider Zarqawi as nothing more than propaganda for the Americans. He's just a name, a rumor so that they have somebody to blame everything on."

Arab analysts were also skeptical about some of the high hopes expressed by western leaders including President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Bush said the killing of Zarqawi was a severe blow to al Qaeda and offered a chance for the Iraqi government to "turn the tide" in the struggle against the insurgency.

Mustafa Alani of the Gulf Research Center in Dubai said: "Maybe the bloodshed will decrease in Iraq now. But the problem is that whenever an extremist leader dies, he is replaced by a more radical leader. Zarqawi is a central figure but I believe that the organization will survive."

EXAGGERATION

"It will have some impact on the security situation but it won't be enough. Let's not exaggerate the impact," he added.

Diaa Rashwan, an expert on Islamist groups at the al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies in Cairo, said the United States had repeatedly exaggerated the probable effect of their occasional successes in Iraq and would do so again.

"Zarqawi in recent times did not represent an important element in violent operations on the ground in Iraq. Other groups which are not extreme, resistance groups not terrorist groups, have grown in strength," he told Reuters.

Several ordinary Arabs expressed strong hostility toward Zarqawi and welcomed his killing. But just as many others said he was a martyr who died fighting for the noble cause of ending the U.S. occupation of a leading Arab and Muslim country.

"We should have no regrets over the killing of a terrorist like him. He was mutilating the image of Islam. Hopefully bin Laden is next," said Lebanese Shi'ite student Sana Abdul-Nabi, referring to al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.