Is he or isn't he?

AFP: US using 'technical means' to see if Zarqawi killed: official---

The United States is using "technical means" to verify if Al-Qaeda frontman in Iraq Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed in battle, US coordinator for Iraq James Jeffrey said.

"We are using technical means to try to verify that," Jeffrey told reporters in Jordan during a videoconference from Washington.

"We are looking into the incident in Mosul but we have no indication at this time that any of the dead were Mr Zarqawi," said Jeffrey, who served as deputy chief of mission in Baghdad from June 2004 to March 2005.

"I don't have any more information for you on that," Jeffrey added.

Media reports have said Jordanian-born Zarqawi, the Al-Qaeda frontman, might have been among a group of insurgents killed in battle in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul on Saturday.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari told Jordan's state-run news agency Monday that the Baghdad authorities were carrying out DNA tests on the bodies of insurgents killed in the battle to check if Zarqawi was among them.

US military commanders have said they were continuing the hunt for Zarqawi, who has a 25-million-dollar US bounty on his head.

"We have no indication that Zarqawi was killed and we will continue operations to search for him," a US military spokesman told AFP in Baghdad on Monday.

Previous Posts:
Let's Hope So 18 November 2005
"We disown him until judgment day." 21 November 2005