The Iraqi, identified only as Mohammed, said he lives near the house where
al-Zarqawi was killed. He said residents put a bearded man in an ambulance
before U.S. forces arrived.
"When the Americans arrived they took him out of the ambulance, they beat him
on his stomach and wrapped his head with his dishdasha, then they stomped on his
stomach and his chest until he died and blood came out of his nose," Mohammed
said, without saying how he knew the man was dead.
A dishdasha is a traditional Arab robe.
A similar account in The Washington Post identified the man as Ahmed
Mohammed.
No other witnesses have come forward to corroborate the account. U.S.
officials have only said al-Zarqawi mumbled and tried to roll off a stretcher
before dying.
In announcing al-Zarqawi's death, the U.S. military said Thursday that
al-Zarqawi was killed outright when two 500-pound bombs were dropped on his
hideout. On Friday, the military said al-Zarqawi survived the bombing, which
ripped a crater in the date-palm forest where the house was nestled just outside
Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad.
"It's not going to be 100 percent accurate all the time, but the first
reports are going to be a little confused. There are going to be some
conflicting stories," Caldwell said, adding that the military should have an
accurate chronology ready by Monday.
He said Iraqi police reached the scene first and found the 39-year-old
al-Zarqawi alive.
"The coalition forces arrived on the scene. The Iraqi police were there. They
in fact saw a person on a stretcher. They moved to that person immediately. A
medical person started immediately applying first aid to that person. Another
person was trying to talk to that person, to try to identify who this was. They
were trying to talk to him and ask him who he was," Caldwell said.
The airstrike killed two other men, two women and girl between the ages of 5
and 7 who were in the house.
APTN footage of the scene showed a wide swath of destruction.
Debris -- shoes, sandals, a woman's slip -- was scattered over concrete
blocks and twisted metal. Trees were ripped from their roots. Charred dresses,
torn blankets, thin sponge mattresses and pillows were the crater blasted by the
bombs. A cooling unit and part of a washing machine also were in the area.
Lt. Col. Thomas Fisher of the 1st Battalion, 68th Armored Cavalry said his
men showed up at the site about five minutes after the blast and cordoned it
off. He said they had a patrol in the area already.
"We didn't know it was Zarqawi, we just knew it was a time-sensitive target,"
he said at the scene early Saturday. "We suspected who it was."
