Zarqawi Hideout Yields Many Clues, Data

This image made available Thursday, June 8, 2006 by the U.S. Department of Defense shows rugs and other household items in the rubble of the last safe house of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in Hibhib, Iraq. Al-Zarqawi was killed at 6:15 p.m. Wednesday night June 7, after an intense two-week hunt that U.S. officials said first led to the terror leader's spiritual adviser and then to him. (AP Photo/U.S. Army, Sgt. Zach Mott) (Sgt. Zach Mott - AP)

The spokesman also disclosed that Zarqawi was still alive when U.S. troops arrived on the scene after Wednesday's airstrike by an F-16 fighter. The terrorist "mumbled a little something" and made an apparent effort to get away after being placed on a stretcher by Iraqi police, Caldwell said. On Thursday U.S. officials had said Zarqawi was dead when he was found. Caldwell said new information indicated that he survived a short time.

Caldwell also suggested the possibility that Zarqawi was not inside the safehouse when it was attacked. He said he spoke with several knowledgeable Air Force officers on Friday to learn how it was possible for Zarqawi to have survived, even for a short time, the devastating power of two 500-pound bombs.

"They assured me that there are cases when people, in fact, can survive even an attack like that on a building structure," Caldwell said. "Obviously, the other five in the building did not, but he did for some reason. And we do not know _ and I've looked through the report _ as to whether or not it was because he might have been right outside (the targeted building) or whatever. We just don't have that granularity."

On Thursday, Rep. Heather Wilson, R-N.M., was asked about U.S. military photos that showed a dead Zarqawi with relatively little apparent physical damage to his face. She said the two bombs, which flattened the safehouse, "didn't hit directly where he was so he was probably killed by debris or the blast effect."

Wilson, an Air Force veteran, is a member of the House Intelligence Committee.

In describing the military raids conducted based on intelligence from the Zarqawi safehouse, Caldwell said one targeted individual, whom he did not identify, was killed in the latest raids and at least 25 were captured.

Pentagon officials have refused to say whether U.S. special operations forces participated in the Zarqawi operation Wednesday, but a comment Friday by President Bush suggested that some of the military's most secretive units may have been involved on the ground.

Speaking to reporters, Bush mentioned that among the senior officers he called to offer congratulations for killing Zarqawi was Army Lt. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, commander of Joint Special Operations Command, whose forces include the Army's clandestine counterterrorism unit, Delta Force.