WASHINGTON, June 8 (UPI) -- President Bush was told about the confirmed killing of terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi Wednesday night and immediately expressed satisfaction.
"That would be a good thing," if he was killed, Bush was quoted by other officials in the Oval Office at the time.
"He was pleased by the news," White House spokesman Tony Snow added Thursday in a read out of the sequence of events leading to the president being informed about the death of the al-Qaida leader.
Zarqawi, a Jordanian national and the head of al-Qaida in Iraq, was killed earlier in the day in an airstrike northeast of Baghdad after local residents tipped Iraqi authorities as to his presence.
The White House has called the killing a serious blow to the insurgency in Iraq and a sign that ordinary Iraqis are fed up with violence and aligning behind their new constitutional government.
Snow gave the following "tick-tock" of events:
--3:45 p.m. (Edt). National security adviser Stephen Hadley, in a meeting with Bush and members of Congress who had just returned from Iraq, received a telephone call from U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad, telling him of the belief Zarqawi had been killed.
--4:35 p.m. At the conclusion of the meeting with Congress members - Hadley informed Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Chief of Staff John Bolton of the development. He also informed Bush that Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki had finally appointed people to the key Cabinet posts, completing formation of his government.
--9:10 p.m. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Peter Pace called Hadley and told him forensic tests - fingerprinting and body scars as well as facial identification - confirmed Zarqawi was dead.
--9:20 p.m. Hadley informed Bush.
Snow said Bush telephoned British Prime Minister Tony Blair early Thursday and told him of Zarqawi's death. He also spoke with Prime Minister Maliki before making remarks to the media from the White House.
