Tracking Zarqawi

Daily Mail:

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Public enemy No 1 for SAS troops operating secretly in post-Saddam Iraq was a Jordanian-born 'holy warrior' who first came to attention in 2004 when he was videoed calmly and cruelly sawing off the head of a young American hostage.

The film was posted on the internet, and the screams of the poor 'infidel' victim as a long knife cut through the tendon and bone of his neck shocked all those who saw it. The black-clad masked figure wielding the blade announced himself as Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

He was 37 years old and had a formidable pedigree in the Islamist underground, including training with Al Qaeda and the Taliban in Aghanistan. But this brutal, televised killing shot him into a whole new league as a militant. Impressionable young jihadist volunteers flocked from the streets of Saudi Arabia and Syria to join his growing network of fighters.

As his organisation went from strength to strength, his elimination soon replaced the capturing of Saddam Hussein as the prime focus of British and American special operations.

But who exactly was this new figure on the international terrorist scene and whose cause was he fighting? The answer emerged when an Islamist website carried the news that Zarqawi - who until then had been operating semi-independently - had sworn an oath of allegiance to Osama bin Laden.

The name of the movement he led was given as the 'Organisation for Holy War in the land of the Two Rivers'. But to coalition military leaders it was simply AQI - Al Qaeda in Iraq. Unless he was stopped, they believed, the whole reconstruction of Iraq would implode.

Not everyone, however, agreed with this analysis, and the emphasis the Americans were giving to Zarqawi worried some British observers. One in a senior post in Baghdad thought his significance had been overinflated, demonising him wrongly as a local Bin Laden. But, increasingly, the great game in Iraq was the hunt for Zarqawi - and the SAS joined in.

Wily and well-protected, he slipped through the net closing round him on numerous occasions.

His car accelerated through a U.S. road block when a hesitant machine-gunner didn't open fire in time.

Then a 'spy in the sky' drone tracking him on a desert road failed at the critical moment. At one point, the Iraqi army even had him in custody, but didn't recognise him.

The SAS had its own brush with him when it raided a house in Baghdad after a tip-off, only to learn that Zarqawi had left shortly before they arrived.

His ability at evading capture must have boosted his confidence, because in January 2006 he upped his game in an attempt to exploit the growing chaos in Iraq. He issued a communique calling for more violence against coalition forces. The Americans thought him such a threat that they placed a $25 million bounty on his head.

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Described as the 'admin emir' of an Al Qaeda cell, his main job was to run the group's public relations by posting videos of its attacks on coalition soldiers on the internet. But intelligence showed he was also involved in setting up car bombs.

He had been tracked down through his mobile phone and was holed up in a farmhouse near the town of Yusufiyah. SAS planners checked the layout and to the north was an orchard which would perfectly screen a helicopter landing.

In charge of the op on the ground was Captain David Ewan (not his real name, which like those of all other living SAS soldiers we have concealed for security reasons), a seasoned SAS officer, though still in his 20s. Just after 2am, Puma helicopters dropped him and his men behind the orchard, and four assault teams made their way towards the house. They trod carefully, wary of booby traps.

On Ewan's command, two scouts went forward and came back to report that a side door was open. Ewan was delighted. They could enter without commotion.

He signalled for the assault to begin and the first team went into the house. Immediately, a burst of gunfire rang out and a cry of 'Contact!' came over the radio. A gunman had been waiting in a corridor and three 'blades' were hit.

The assault team fled, helping their wounded to the cover of a nearby sand dune.

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Putting himself at the head of his men, Ewan approached the building under covering fire and he and one of his 'blades' lobbed in grenades. But as his men went in again, two more were wounded - one by a bullet and the other by a grenade fragment.

Back at base, those watching the events unfold live on giant TV screens saw flashes from explosions and zips of tracer fire, all caught by the night-vision cameras in the aircraft circling above. Someone was seen darting from the rear of the house, carrying grenades and an assault rifle, and wearing a suicide vest.

Inside the house, Ewan's men killed a gunman in the corridor, and then went through the house room by room. Another man was shot. In one room, the SAS stormed in to find terrified women and children cowering in the darkness. One woman was dead, while three others and a child were wounded.

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Outside, the man who had been seen fleeing died in a hail of bullets after trying to hide under a car. He never got to set off the suicide device he was wearing. Five of the defenders were dead, but five others had survived.

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The haul from the raid was a treasure trove of intelligence. Until then, the only photographs in circulation of the Jordanian jihadist were very dated.

Now, there was fresh footage, showing exactly what he looked like. The SAS assault team had hit the jackpot.

In fact, later intelligence suggested Zarqawi had been in another building not far away from the one they had attacked. Once again, coalition troops had unwittingly come within a whisker of capturing Iraq's most wanted man.

And there was more to come when the two detainees from the raid were passed to the Americans for questioning by specialist interrogators.

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There is much more.

Interrogation of one of the detainees eventually led to Zarqawi's religious adviser who led the US special ops team to Zarqawi's location where he was killed in a bombing raid. There is much more detail on the fire fight at the SAS raid as well as the lengthy interrogation of the detainees. This is an excerpt from a book, Task Force Black by Mark Urban. It looks like a must read for those interested in how British special forces helped to win the war in Iraq. The details in this story would make for a great movie.