This is published in the Guardian today by way of Reuters:
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DNA to check reports of al-Zarqawi's death

Reuters Moscow
Tuesday November 22, 2005

Guardian

Iraq is checking reports that the Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi may have been killed during fighting in northern Iraq, the foreign minister, Hoshiyar Zebari, said yesterday.
Mr Zebari said senior militants were at a house in the city of Mosul when US and Iraqi forces stormed it on Sunday, causing some of those inside to blow themselves up, but it could not yet be determined whether Zarqawi was among those killed.

"We don't have confirmation," Mr Zebari told Reuters during a visit to Moscow. "In my view, I would say there must have been some key leaders of the insurgency, especially the fundamentalists - al-Qaida type of people - so I would not be surprised if he could be one of those who blew himself up.

"We know that American and Iraqi forces ... surrounded a house where there was fierce resistance and when the American and Iraqi forces jointly tried to storm the building the occupants blew themselves up, they committed suicide."

Mr Zebari said only DNA tests could confirm whether Zarqawi was among those killed, and said checks were being made.

Zarqawi's al-Qaida group in Iraq has carried out many of the deadliest bombings in the country and also claimed responsibility for the hotel bombings in Amman, Jordan, earlier this month. He has been active in Mosul in the past. The US is offering a $25m (£14.5m) bounty for information leading to his capture.

"Unless they get a confirmation from the DNA, it will be difficult to say whether it was him or some of his lieutenants," Mr Zebari said of the eight people killed.

A US official in Washington said on Sunday: "Efforts are under way to determine whether Zarqawi was among those killed."

However, the White House spokesman Trent Duffy, who was travelling with the US production, George Bush, in Asia, said it was "highly unlikely and not credible" that Zarqawi was among the dead in Mosul.


Tom: "They shot Sonny on the causeway...he's dead."
Michael: "Turnbull is a good man"
Shane MacGowan: "It was Christmas Eve babe, in the drunk tank"