ITAR-TASS is reporting that Abu Mus’ab al-Zarqawi has been captured. Normally ITAR-TASS is a relatively credible source of information, although their sources in this case seem doubtful. There have been several reports of his capture, but all the rumors have turned out to be false. Still, one can hope…
UPDATE: I’m getting some very preliminary indications that there may be something to this. The fact that we haven’t seen a disavowel yet is interesting, although there’s nothing solid yet that confirms the story. Remember that it only took a few hours for the capture of Saddam Hussein to leak out. I rather doubt that unless al-Zarqawi was captured by non-US forces (such as Kurdish peshmerga fighters) we’d not know about it by this afternoon. However, if non-US forces did capture Zarqawi the silence may be explained by the Pentagon themselves trying to confirm who got him and where he is now. I suspect we’ll get something on this rumor by the end of the day.
Note that this comes shortly after the arrest of suspected Zarqawi lieutenant Abu Marwan…
UPDATE: MSNBC is reporting that the rumors have been flatly denied by the Pentagon. At this point, I’d have to say that Zarqawi has not been captured and the initial story is false.
