This is Life!: Revolutions Around the Cruciform Axis

Zarqawi Wounded?

The AP is reporting that a website is announcing that Iraq al-Qaida Leader Wounded. The reports have not been confirmed, and reports such as these have been coming forward for a few weeks. And it may be fake.

Al-Qaida's branch in Iraq, blamed for numerous terror attacks on U.S. and Iraqi targets, said Tuesday in an Internet posting that its leader, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, had been wounded and called on supporters to pray for his recovery. The posting's authenticity could not be verified, but it was posted on a Web site known for carrying prior statements by al-Qaida in Iraq and other militant groups.

Asked about the reports al-Zarqawi had been wounded, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said, "I don't know."

A U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the official's work said one of the possibilities being considered is whether it was purposely misleading information.

There have been several reports this month that U.S. forces were close to capturing Iraq's most-wanted terrorist.

The statement, which purportedly was from the group's media coordinator, Abu Maysarah al-Iraqi, did not say how or when al-Zarqawi was injured. Al-Iraqi is known to be the group's media coordinator, but there was no way to confirm if the statement was true or that it was posted by al-Qaida in Iraq.