Official: Leading terrorist suspect eluded capture by U.S. military

WASHINGTON -- U.S. forces in Iraq believe they just missed capturing most-wanted terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in a February raid that netted two of his associates, a senior U.S. military official said Tuesday.\nThe official, who discussed the operation on the condition of anonymity, could provide no details regarding how Zarqawi escaped. U.S. forces recovered a computer belonging to Zarqawi, the official said, although he did not say how it was obtained.\nIraqi officials announced the Feb. 20 raid at the time but did not say Zarqawi was the target.\nAt a Pentagon news conference, Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, would only say, "We were close," but he declined to elaborate, citing concerns about disclosing operational details.\n"I think in general the intelligence is getting better. Having said that, we still don't have Zarqawi," Myers said.\nQuestioned about the level of insurgency in Iraq compared with last year, Myers said, "In terms of incidents, it's right about where it was a year ago."\nZarqawi, who has a $25 million bounty on his head, is believed to have orchestrated a relentless wave of car bombings, kidnappings, assassinations and beheadings across the country.\nDefense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said of Zarqawi, "In terms of lethality, I would rank him quite high," but he added, "I think he is on the run. Life for a terrorist-extremist is hard."\nTroops with a covert military unit were reportedly in place to arrest him as he was on his way to Ramadi, but he caught wind of them, ABC News reported late Monday, citing an unidentified senior military official.\nThe official said just before the meeting was scheduled, a car was pulled over as it approached a checkpoint. A pickup truck trailing the car then turned and headed in the opposite direction.\nOfficials believe Zarqawi was in the fleeing truck, but when U.S. teams pulled the vehicle over several miles later, he was not inside, ABC reported. The official told the network Zarqawi apparently jumped out of the vehicle when it passed beneath an overpass and hid there before escaping.\nInside the truck, the official told ABC, U.S. troops found Zarqawi's computer and about $104,000.\nNBC, quoting U.S. military sources, reported Tuesday that among the items seized with the laptop were several small plug-in hard drives. Numerous pictures of Zarqawi were found in the computer's "My Pictures" file, the network said.\nCaptured in the Feb. 20 operation was Talib Mikhlif Arsan Walman al-Dulaymi, also known as Abu Qutaybah, an Iraqi government announcement said at the time.\nQutaybah "filled the role of key lieutenant for the Zarqawi network, arranging safe houses and transportation as well as passing packages and funds" to Zarqawi, the government said.\nIt said Qutaybah was a known associate of other Zarqawi lieutenants already held by coalition forces, including Abu Ahmed, an al-Qaida-linked insurgent leader in the northern city of Mosul who was detained Dec. 22.\nDuring the same raid, Iraqi forces captured another Zarqawi aide who "occasionally acted as his driver," the government said. He was identified as Ahmad Khalid Marad Ismail al-Rawi, who also helped arrange meetings for al-Zarqawi. He is also known as Abu Uthman.