WASHINGTON, June 13 (UPI) -- Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi lived for about 52 minutes after twin bomb strikes destroyed the building he was in, according to the U.S. military.
He died of internal injuries, suggesting he was not in the room when the bombs exploded, according to Col. Steve Jones, the command surgeon for Multi-National Forces Iraq. However, he was inside the building, Jones told reporters Monday in Baghdad.
There is no evidence Zarqawi was beaten or died of gunshot wounds, two of the rumors that have swirled through the Internet in the wake of the June 7 strike.
"The scientific facts provide irrefutable evidence regarding the death of these terrorists, and will serve to counter speculation, misinformation and propaganda. The Iraqi people deserve the facts, to know that the personal threat of Zarqawi is eliminated and the fact that he was treated better in death than he treated others in life," said Maj. Gen. William Caldwell, the U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad.
The house near Baqubah, Iraq, was bombed at 6:12 p.m. Iraqi police forces, who were not involved in the operation, responded to the blast shortly thereafter and found Zarqawi's body. U.S. forces arrived at 6:40 p.m. and began rendering medical assistance. Zarqawi died at 7:04 p.m.
"A coalition medic treated Zarqawi while he did lapse in and out of consciousness. The medic secured his airway, at which point Zarqawi expelled blood," said Caldwell. "The medic then checked his carotidic pulse, which was barely palpable, and quickly deteriorated, and (from) which he determined, therefore, that Zarqawi's death was imminent."
The autopsy was performed by five American military and civilian board-certified pathologists and their assistants flown in from the United States.
Jones said Zarqawi's spiritual adviser, Sheik Abd al-Rahman, appears to have been thrown against a wall by the force of the bomb and died from a fractured skill.
"I think he either hit a wall or something hit his head. But at the same time, he also had blast injuries of the lungs. So I think also he was in an enclosed place, but he was more exposed to the blast waves, more than Zarqawi," Jones said.
Zarqawi, however, died of blast injuries to his lungs.
"Blast waves from the two bombs caused tearing, bruising of the lungs and bleeding," Jones said. "This wound was not immediately fatal. Death occurred as lung function deteriorated, and the lungs became progressively unable to absorb oxygen into the bloodstream."
"The shockwave from the blast can rupture air-filled organs such as the ears, lungs and intestines. Those injuries are not obvious from looking at the external surface of the body. This type of injury is called primary blast injury and is what killed Zarqawi," Jones said.
"All the blood vessels inside the lung start rupturing and the blood is seeping into the tissue. And in the same time, the air bags or air sacs in the lung explode and form these cavities that also get filled with blood. So there's no exchange of air, and the person -- it depends on the strength of the blast wave -- either die immediately, die within minutes or die later, in hours. In this case, it was severe," Jones said.
Jones said because Zarqawi died from primary blast injury, he had to have been in an enclosed space.
"That is how we know he was inside the house when he was hit," he said.
Because Zarqawi's injuries were different from the other five casualties, and because he lived through the initial attack, there has been speculation that he had left the building at the time of the attack and was either shot or beaten by U.S. or Iraqi forces on the scene.
"We have clear evidence that he died of blast injuries. There is no evidence to suggest that he was beaten, and I have no reason to suspect that that happened," Jones said.
Caldwell also said no U.S. ground forces were in the immediate vicinity of the strike when it was called in, clouding the exact chain of events that led to the attack.
"There's a period there of about 28 minutes before coalition forces arrived at that location and physically had, as you would say, boots on the ground at the safe house. They were not outside the building before then," Caldwell said.
Caldwell said no U.S. forces saw Zarqawi enter the building with their own eyes, but other unnamed conditions indicated Zarqawi was meeting with his spiritual adviser, whom coalition had forces had been tracking for three weeks.
"We had been following al-Rahman, and when he arrived at that safe house, all the criteria that they had previously established that would have told them that there is a link-up occurring between Zarqawi and al-Rahman was occurring, in fact were met at that point in time. And so being a time-sensitive target, not knowing we were going to that house, not knowing we'd be in that location, the only asset available to prosecute that target was an air asset, and that's the reason for calling in the F-16 strike on that house at that point," Caldwell said.
