US unable to injuries to al Zarqawi
Washington, May 28. (PTI): The United States has no independent corroboration that the Jordanian terrorist in Iraq linked to al-Qaeda, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, has been wounded or spirited out of the country.
Efforts are under way to determine the veracity of reports on the Internet and elsewhere about Zarqawi's condition and whereabouts, Army Brigadier General Carter Hamm said on Friday a briefing at the Pentagon.
Hamm is the deputy director for regional operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Pentagon spokesman Lawrence Di Rita said it was difficult to determine what is accurate in the reports coming out of the Middle East.
The principal deputy assistant secretary of defence noted that al-Qaeda and its affiliates had used reports about its operatives in the past for purposes of misinformation and disinformation.
Even though Di Rita described Zarqawi as an important and wanted figure in the War on Terrorism, Hamm noted that he was only one individual in a very large organization.
He described Zarqawi's operation as a network of cells spread throughout Iraq. Although Zarqawi's cells are located regionally, the general said, they were reliant, to a degree, on centralised funding.
Efforts to disrupt that financing were under way, he added.
Even if Zarqawi is removed from the power structure, Hamm said his network of followers would remain lethal.
His organisation was resilient and "won't crumble or cease to exist" without him, the military official said.