How U.S. Forces Found Iraq's Most-Wanted Man

For years, Zarqawi and his top aides have been hunted by an elite and highly secretive team of U.S. Special Forces personnel known as Task Force 77. They nearly apprehended Zarqawi on several occasions, most recently in April during a series of raids near the southern city of Yusufiyah, according to a defense official familiar with the Zarqawi hunt.

A crucial breakthrough in the hunt came last month when Jordanian intelligence officers captured one of Zarqawi's mid-level operatives near the Iraqi border, according to the official. Employed by the Iraqi government as a customs clearance officer in Rutbah, along the main road from Amman to Baghdad, the operative identified himself as Ziad Khalaf al-Kerbouly. Kerbouly said in a statement broadcast by Jordanian television on May 23 that he used his position to help Zarqawi smuggle cash and materiel for the insurgency.

Under questioning, Kerbouly told Jordanian interrogators something that they did not broadcast: the identity and contacts for Zarqawi's new "spiritual adviser," Sheik Abdel Rahman. Task Force 77 located Abdel Rahman, kept him under surveillance and learned that there was "a very high probability" he would meet Zarqawi at the house on Wednesday.

According to a U.S. intelligence source, Abdel Rahman served as Zarqawi's liaison to Muslim clerics across Iraq, gathering recruits, funding and popular support for the insurgency. Unlike Zarqawi's previous spiritual adviser, Abdullah Janabi, Abdel Rahman -- a Sunni Muslim, as was Zarqawi -- supported al-Qaeda in Iraq's campaign of attacks against Iraq's majority Shiite population.

Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell IV, a U.S. military spokesman, declined to comment on specific Jordanian help. By his account, the capture or killing of several top al-Qaeda lieutenants in recent weeks, beginning with a cell leader in Yusufiyah on April 6, brought critical intelligence about the leader.

As expected, Abdel Rahman went Wednesday to the house in the village of Hibhib, north of Baghdad. "We knew exactly who was there," Caldwell said. "We knew it was Zarqawi, and that was who we went to get."

Despite previous reports of Zarqawi nearly being captured, Caldwell said, "last night was the first time we have had definite and unquestionable information about exactly where he was located, knowing that we could strike that target without collateral damage."

Shown from above in a military photograph, the house appeared to be a white, two-story structure with a verdant courtyard, located beside plowed fields and a paved road at the edge of a date palm forest. No other buildings were nearby.

The house was rented three months ago to a Sunni family that fled under threat from the predominantly Shiite Baghdad slum of Sadr City, according to Jumaa al-Ubaidi, the building's owner.

Two Air Force F-16C jets were brought into the attack while flying an unrelated mission, Lt. Gen. Gary North, commander of the Combined Forces Air Component, told Pentagon reporters by telephone Thursday. The pilots were told there was a "high-value target in the building."

Caldwell showed a grainy, black-and-white video of the attack, shot from one of the F-16s. A bomb dropped by the other jet is seen detonating in white cross hairs that mark the house. A plume of smoke billows. Moments later, another bomb explodes on the site.

Iraqi police soon arrived on the scene, followed by U.S. forces, Caldwell said.

In two photographs released by the military Thursday, Zarqawi's face appears bulbous and bruised, with a red welt on his left cheek, a few minor cuts and blood clotted in his nose. His body cannot be seen. Caldwell said his face was cleaned before the photographs were taken.

Several discrepancies emerged in various accounts of Wednesday's events. Police and witnesses at the scene told a Washington Post special correspondent that Zarqawi was only wounded in the attack and was whisked away by U.S. forces, dying in their custody. Caldwell said he was killed instantly.

FBI forensics experts matched Zarqawi's fingerprints to a set on file. They plan to perform DNA analysis at their laboratory in Quantico, Va., according to Special Agent Richard Kolko, a bureau spokesman.

Caldwell said intelligence gathered from the attack was being used to pursue other targets. Coalition forces raided 17 locations in and around Baghdad on Wednesday night, seizing a "treasure trove" of information about terrorist operations in the country, Caldwell said.

In parliament Thursday, Abdul Qadir Muhammed Jassim, a Sunni Arab who commanded the Iraqi army in the west, was confirmed as defense minister. Jawad al-Bolani, a Shiite, was put in charge of the Interior Ministry. Ambassador Khalilzad and many Sunni politicians had warned against naming a minister tied to the country's main Shiite militias. Bolani told lawmakers he was not affiliated with a political party.

Sherwan Alwaeli, a Shiite, was named the country's top official for national security.

Correspondent Ellen Knickmeyer and staff writer Nelson Hernandez in Baghdad and staff writers Thomas E. Ricks, Josh White, Ann Scott Tyson, Dan Eggen and Barton Gellman and researcher Julie Tate in Washington contributed to this report. Special correspondents Omar Fekeiki, Bassam Sebti, K.I. Ibrahim and Naseer Nouri in Baghdad and Hasan Shammari in Hibhib also contributed.