US forces allegedly beat a mortally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi to death after a massive air strike on a safe house in Iraq where the wounded head of the terror wing of al-Qaeda in Iraq was hiding, eye-witnesses have said.
Native Iraqis who happened to be on the scene, have been quoted as saying that Zarqawi, a dreaded figure for the beheadings and numerous suicide attacks he orchestrated, was still alive when the US troops and Iraqi police drove up to the wreck and was beaten to death by the forces.
Ali Abbas, a young farm labourer told the Sunday Times that he, along with some locals, rushed outside soon after a US aircraft dropped two bombs in north Baghdad and 'heard a moan coming from another part of the [safe] house'.
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They reportedly found Zarqawi, who they did not recognize as Iraq's most wanted terrorist. 'There was life in him still. It took seven of us to move him from within the rubble and carry him out about 100 metres,' they said.
Soon Iraqi and US forces turned up.
'They were shouting and screaming and were in a very tense and agitated mood,' Abbas said.
'The Americans tore his dishdasha (robe) and they kept on asking him through an interpreter, 'What is your name, what is your name?'' said Abbas, adding that the American forces were probably afraid that the militant was wearing a suicide belt.
The soldiers, on finding that the man was not a threat, started to kick him in the chest, the Times reported. 'They kept kicking him, shouting, 'What's your name?', but the man only moaned and said nothing,' Abbas said.
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The wounded man soon grew paler and blood oozed from his mouth and nose. It took about a quarter of an hour for him to die from the time when he was removed from the ambulance, the Times quoted Abbas as saying.
The top commander of multinational forces in Iraq, General George Casey has dismissed the report.
