US forces came very close to capturing terrorist mastermind Abu Mus’ab al-Zarqawi. While al-Zarqawi managed to make a quick escape, the US did capture a computer packed with information on his network.
Zarqawi is the current operational head of al-Qaeda. In terms of dealing with the threat from al-Qaeda, his capture would be more important than the capture of Osama bin Laden who has been largely reduced to a figurehead due to his isolation along the Afghan-Pakistan border and his inability to use electronic communications. Nabbing bin Laden would be an important symbolic victory. Nabbing al-Zarqawi would be an important operational victory. Given how close we’ve come, it’s only a matter of time before we make the final capture.
