Washington, June 12: Last week's deadly strike on
senior al-Qaeda operative Abu Musab al-Zarqawi yielded a
treasure trove of vital intelligence information, Iraq's
National Security Adviser Mowaffak al-Rubaie told a television channel.
"We found a lot of material in that place. We found the
diaries. We found telephone numbers. We found computers, and
... There was a database in that computer," he said yesterday.
"There was a lot of information ... Zarqawi used to carry
with him," he said.
"It was very, very useful, not only to capture Zarqawi
and get him out of the way of the Iraqi people, because he's
the number one enemy of the Iraqi people. It was the value of
the information we got with him," said Rubaie, who said that
the information was used to carry out "a lot of raids
immediately after we got Zarqawi."
On Wednesday, US forces dropped two 227 kilogram bombs on
Zarqawi's safe-house northeast of Baghdad near the city of
Baquba, killing the al-Qaeda leader and several associates.
The security adviser said the information recovered from
the military strike also led officials to other operatives in
the terror group.
"We got quite a few of not only Abu Musab al-Zarqawi but
others now in the organization," he said.
"Without detailing anything, to not to jeopardise our
security plan and our security operation, I can tell you that
we have managed to inflict heavy casualties on this
organisation when we got to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi," Rubaie
said.
Bureau Report
First Published: Monday, June 12, 2006, 00:00