Chicago Tribune

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Al-Qaida in Iraq vowed Sunday to carry out “major attacks” in Iraq to avenge the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and to demonstrate that the network remains a force to be reckoned with despite the loss of its leader.

In a statement posted on the Web site used by al-Qaida and other insurgent groups, the organization said it held a meeting of its top leaders and that they resolved to “prepare major attacks that will shake the enemy like an earthquake and rattle them out of sleep.”

Such threats come as no surprise in the wake of the death of the high-profile leader of the group responsible for the most gruesome and deadly terror attacks in Iraq over the past three years. For days, postings on the Web site have been lauding al-Zarqawi’s achievements and encouraging Muslim fighters to come to Iraq to avenge his death.

Whether or not al-Zarqawi’s group will prove capable of regenerating itself and reclaiming the initiative with the kind of bombings and kidnappings that catapulted al-Zarqawi to infamy is something the military will be closely watching in the coming weeks and months.

But U.S. officials are hoping the damage inflicted on al-Qaida by al-Zarqawi’s death and by a series of raids in the following days, will seriously disrupt the network, at least in the near term.

Speaking on Fox, Gen. George Casey, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, said the U.S. military would continue to press the advantage against al-Qaida in the days and weeks ahead.

“That’s expected. They are hurt badly,” he said, when asked about the al-Qaida threat. “We have had a steady drumbeat of operations against the al-Qaida network here in Iraq since the Zarqawi operation. I expect them to say what they said; I expect them to try to do what they said.

“But, they lost their leader. Any organization, particularly an organization at war that loses their leader, is affected. And, we will continue to go after his network and disrupt them in what we feel is a very vulnerable period.

“It’s not going to stop terrorism across Iraq,” he added. “But it is a major blow to both his network and to al-Qaida.”

Iraq’s National Security Adviser Mouwafak al-Rubaie went further, telling CNN that he thinks the death of al-Zarqawi is a “huge loss” for al-Qaida.

“They’re trying to make up for the huge loss and the disorientation they are suffering from because there is a huge vacuum of power now within al-Qaida,” he said.

The statement threatening fresh attacks was made in the name of al-Qaida in Iraq but was issued in the name of the Mujahadeen Shura Council, an umbrella group of six radical insurgent groups who share al-Qaida’s goals. The statement pledged the group’s allegiance to Osama bin Laden, the fugitive al-Qaida founder and its global leader. Al-Qaida in Iraq has not yet named a leader to replace al-Zarqawi.

The threat came as the U.S. military said medical specialists have concluded an autopsy on al-Zarqawi’s body and may release the results Monday.

Casey said he has not seen the autopsy, but he dismissed as “baloney” reports that al-Zarqawi did not die in the airstrike but was beaten to death by U.S. forces who arrived at the scene.

He did, however, confirm a portion of the account given to various news organizations by a witness called Mohammed that al-Zarqawi was being loaded onto an ambulance when U.S. forces arrived and that they removed him from the ambulance.

“Our soldiers who came on the scene found him being put in an ambulance by Iraqi police, they took him off, rendered first aid, and he expired,” Casey said. “And so he died while American soldiers were attempting to save his life.”

The first U.S. account of the aftermath of the strike said that al-Zarqawi was dead when U.S. forces arrived. That version was then revised to say that al-Zarqawi was clinging to life when U.S. soldiers reached the scene and found him on a stretcher. No mention was made of an ambulance or of an attempt to resuscitate him.

The purported witness told APTN, in footage widely broadcast across the Arab world, that he saw U.S. forces remove al-Zarqawi from the ambulance and stomp on his body until he was dead.

Casey spoke before heading to Camp David where President Bush plans to host a two-day gathering of his Iraq advisers starting Monday for discussions about the road ahead.

The violence consistently plaguing Iraq has not abated since the death of al-Zarqawi on Wednesday, but a feared surge of intensified attacks to avenge his death has not yet materialized.

In the worst violence Sunday, five civilians died in a gunbattle between British troops in the southern city of Basra and militiamen loyal to the radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, a reminder that the Sunni-dominated insurgency is not the only threat to security in Iraq.

At least nine other deaths in shooting incidents were reported across the country Sunday, the Associated Press said.

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