Yes! Via FoxNews:
BAGHDAD, Iraq — Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Al Qaeda in Iraq leader who led a brutal insurgency that included homicide bombings, kidnappings and beheadings, was killed in an airstrike on a building north of Baghdad, U.S. and Iraqi officials announced Thursday.
Officials said the terror leader’s identity was confirmed by fingerprints, facial recognition, and known scars.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki said al-Zarqawi was killed along with seven aides Wednesday evening at around 6:15 p.m. local time in a bombing raid on a building in a remote area 30 miles northeast of Baghdad in Diyala province.
Loud applause broke out as Al-Maliki, flanked by U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad and U.S. Gen. George Casey, the top commander in Iraq, made the announcement at a news conference in Baghdad Thursday that al-Zarqawi was “terminated.”
U.S. President George W. Bush said al-Zarqawi’s death “is a severe blow to Al Qaeda and it is a significant victory in the war on terror.”
What great news to wake up to!
Omar at Iraq the Model:
CONGRATULATIONS TO IRAQ, CONGRATULATIONS TO THE WHOLE WORLD ON THIS VICTORY.
I second that - and hats off to our super-fine military for yet another stellar accomplishment!
Sidenote: *Channels the anti-war left: it’s a Bush election year plot!!!!!!*
Speaking of, Mark In Mexico provides a sampling of the reaction on the left side of the blogosphere …
Just how did we know where to find Zarqawi? Via AP (emphasis added):
Al-Maliki said the air strike was the result of intelligence reports provided to Iraqi security forces by residents in the area, and U.S. forces acted on the information.
A Jordanian official said that Jordan also provided the U.S. military with information that helped in tracking al-Zarqawi down
Watch the video of the annoucement here.
More: Mary Katharine Ham points to this bizarre interview with Michael Berg, father of Nick Berg, who was beheaded last year in Iraq:
“I’m sorry when any human being dies…and I feel bad for that. His death will reignite yet another wave of revenge. It’s an endless cycle as long as people use violence to fight violence…When Nick was killed I felt that I had nothing left to lose…I was not a risk-taking person, but I’ve done things that have endangered me. I have been shot at…Every time we kill an Iraqi…we are creating a large number of people who are going to want vengeance. When are we ever gonna learn that that doesn’t work?
…More and more of these everyday Iraqi people…lose it and join what people call the insurgency and what I call a people You can’t really believe that that’s a democracy there when the people running the elections are holding guns…
I’m not saying Saddam Hussein’s a good man, but he’s no worse than George Bush. Under Saddam Hussein, no al-Qaeda in Iraq; under George Bush, al-Qaeda. Under Saddam Hussein, relative stability; under George Bush, instability. Under Saddam Hussein, 30,000 deaths a year; under George Bush, about 50,000 deaths. I don’t understand. Why is this better to have George Bush be the King of Iraq rather than Saddam Hussein?”
Update: View the airstrike footage here.
Others blogging about this: Captain Ed, Michelle Malkin, James Joyner, Dafydd at Big Lizard, Wizbang, Stop The ACLU, Iowa Voice, bRight and Early, RightWinged.com, Expose the Left, All Things Beautiful, Anchoress, Pirate’s Cove, Macsmind, Gateway Pundit, Austin Bay, Betsy Newmark, Florida Masochist, Kobayashi Maru, Wide Awake Cafe, Sundries Shack, Mudville Gazette, Tom Maguire, Froggy at Blackfive, GayPatriotWest, Jason Smith, Blog For All, QandO, AJ Strata, Gary Gross at California Conservative, Political Pit Bull
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Great news is a great way to start the morning! Knowing that scumbag is taking the eternal dirt nap definitely makes my morning coffee taste sweet. Now expect to hear the usual bleating of the MSM about how this really isn’t that big a deal, they’ll keep fighting anyway (of course they will, the terrorists aren’t Democrats fer Christ’s sake, they don’t whine, wet their pants, and run at the first sign of resistance, but it will hurt them nonetheless), yada yada yada. I’ve already heard one report that managed to mention Haditha and Abu Graib more than it mentioned Zarqawi.
But still, it brings a great big
to my face.
Comment by Severian @ 6/8/2006 - 8:33 am
Severian,
I couldn’t agree with you more. I always laugh when the lefties tell everyone things like “they will keep fighting”. It is like they feel they are telling all of us something we don’t already know.
You are also correct, even though they will keep fighting this is a very serious blow to their terrorist organization and a huge moral booster for the Iraqi people, Iraqi government, the US, the President, and especially the troops in the field.
I will finish my coffee but I may hoist a drink at lunch in honor of the great job our forces have done!!
Comment by US Vet @ 6/8/2006 - 9:52 am
- Chalk one up for the good guys. I’m sure the “progressives” are in a real funk this morning. One of their murdering thug “heros” is pushing up daisies.
- Rumsfeld looked “Large and in Charge” at this mornings news conference.
- Bang
Comment by Big Bang Hunter @ 6/8/2006 - 9:56 am
- One of the most significant aspects of this event is that officials are saying that the raid came after weeks, and months of tracking the Jordanian al Qaeda leader, and that Iraqi locals gave valuable information, along with officials in Jordon, to help coalition forces track him down.
- Hopefully we have turned a corner of a sorts, wherein the Iraqi people themselves will take the lead in their own Democratization from this point on. Lots of dancing in the streets by the legitimate police forces and Iraqi’a over this news.
- Al Jazzera reported Zarqawi’a death, but siad that their “evil” work will continue against the infidel forces in Iraq.
- Maybe, but with a whole lot less effective leadership.
- Bang
Comment by Big Bang Hunter @ 6/8/2006 - 10:09 am
Rumsfeld is being interviewed on The Laura Ingraham Show right now. She somehow got him to talk about what Zarqawi was like. “He’s… he’s a loser! And he’s dead and gone.”
Comment by blogagog @ 6/8/2006 - 11:15 am
WHAT A DAY!!!!!!!!!! I just woke up and was flipping around the channels and for some reason I turned to Fox news. I have’nt watched Fox news for a while, I usually go to the website, but for some reason I turned it on just as this story was playing.
Absolutely fantastic!!! What a victory for the U.S. military, the Iraqi military, and the Iraqi people!! There is no way that this operation could have succeeded without information from Iraqi citizens. It was so nice to see many of them dancing in the street, celebrating the death of this murderer. Having been in Iraq for 14 months, I have seen what these terrorists have done to the country and it’s people.
They killed this guy not far from the area where I was and although I know Zarqawi didn’t trigger the bomb that got me, I’d be willing to bet it was people loyal to him.
Thank you to all U.S. military personnel around the globe and veterans everywhere.
Have fun in Hell Zarqawi, save some room for Osama.
Comment by NC Cop @ 6/8/2006 - 11:23 am
- The Democratic leadership is generally stuttering through the morning, trying to fence sit, timidly calling it a “good move forward”, and of course wanting to bloviate “now is the time to call for troop reductions”. In other words the prime directive among the moonbats is “can we leave yet”…
- Diane Feinstein, on FOX this morning, looked like someone had done something nasty in her cornflakes…
- Of course the Ketchup Sluts Boy-Toy, LurchKerry, just couldn’t resist weighing in, calling for “immediate troop reductions”. I can’t imagine what the situation in our country would be like right now had he won the presidency. The very thought gives me hives.
- Hope our dear “friends” of the loyal anti-American Jihadist loving “patriots” all grow damn ulcers….
- Ding Dong their witch hero is dead….
- Bang
Comment by Big Bang Hunter @ 6/8/2006 - 11:44 am
The only downside I can think of about this is that pig Zarqawi died too quickly for my tastes. Hours of agonized suffering would have been better, but quickly dead works just as well, and far better than letting him mouth off at a trial. What will Ramsey Clark do for an encore after his butt kissing defense of Saddam if we keep killing the terrorists? Oh Law!
Comment by Severian @ 6/8/2006 - 11:53 am
Daily Kos: “Where is Osama? Where are the batillions of trained Iraqis? Doesn’t matter, we got this guy, right? We wrote a 25 million check as a reward, and get a new headline to bump off Haditha.”
Comment by Baklava @ 6/8/2006 - 12:28 pm
LMAO Bak - they are so predictable, aren’t they?
Comment by Sister Toldjah @ 6/8/2006 - 12:32 pm
As predictable as a hungry snake in a cage with a live mouse in it.
Comment by Baklava @ 6/8/2006 - 12:35 pm
- The left has become a cockroach nest of anti-American dirtbags. Only they, could want to talk about an unproven “case” concerning Iraqi’a that were probably killed by insurgents as a part of a Jihadist PR scam, rather than the demise of a murdering thug who was probably to blame for thousands of deaths.
- What idiots…I think they should at least consider pulling in their horns before they incure the open wrath of the majority of Americans. People are getting pretty fed up with their crap….
- Bang
Comment by Big Bang Hunter @ 6/8/2006 - 12:55 pm
Sweetness and Light posts pictures of Iraqi women and soldiers and U.S. Military celebrating.
THEN she posts a picture of what the PRESS is showing - a picture of an Iraqi man holding up a baby’s shoe and soft toy after the U.S. air raid. How irrelevant the press is.
Comment by Baklava @ 6/8/2006 - 1:16 pm
Although we have captured Saddam, terminated al-Zarqawi, broken al Qaeda and put Osama on the run, helped to bring democracy to Iraq, enacted the Patriot Act, put pressure on Iran and North Korea, and have had no terrorist attack on US soil since 9/11, we are losing the war on Terror. The MSM and Democrats say so.
Comment by Mwalimu Daudi @ 6/8/2006 - 1:25 pm
Yeah, they can be pretty hypocritical. Kim Priestap found an interesting example of it here. Sure, it’s ok to talk about murderers in Haditha without the facts, but Zarkawi? No way, it’s not proven yet!
Comment by blogagog @ 6/8/2006 - 1:42 pm
It is very good news that this man is dead. I have been telling EVERYONE here at work about it. I know that these folks will continue trying to overthrow the new democracy, but it ain’t gonna happen. I am going to believe that we are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel with this. I am hoping that we are going to find some information that will lead us to OBL himself in all this rubble. Bye Buh Asshat enjoy your 72 Virginians. - Lorica
P.S. On that photo that Sweetness n Light is saying the MSM is using. Is it me or does that bear look alittle to clean to be pulled out of the rubble?? Did these two go home and shower before they took this photo too??? Also that boy has an open back pack in his hands. I am thinking this is a setup.
Comment by Lorica @ 6/8/2006 - 1:53 pm
al-AP is trying to spin the story that al-Zarqawi’s death is actually a boost for terrorism in Iraq. The US is really on the ropes now!
I guess that the MSM does not do regular drug tests of it’s “journalists”.
Comment by Mwalimu Daudi @ 6/8/2006 - 2:20 pm
Couldn’t happen to a nicer fellow. I hope it hurt. I hope it hurt a lot.
Comment by LindaSoG @ 6/8/2006 - 8:36 pm
- I hope that heathen murdering dirtbag heard the JDAM about a second or two just before it hit… and KNEW….whats the words in Arabic for “Ohhhh ***t!” …. Would have loved to see the look on his face….
- Bang
Comment by Big Bang Hunter @ 6/8/2006 - 10:59 pm