Autopsy Details How Zarqawi Died

Al Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab Zarqawi survived catastrophic internal injuries and bone fractures for nearly an hour after his safe house was struck last week by two 500-pound bombs, according to autopsy results provided Monday by the U.S. military.

Concussive blast waves from the U.S. airstrike caused massive hemorrhaging in his body and ruptured his lungs, causing his death, the report said.

Despite those devastating injuries, Zarqawi was still shifting in and out of consciousness less than half an hour after the attack when U.S. forces arrived at the shattered house near Baqubah. Medics attempted to clear his airway of blood and reestablish his failing pulse, but he died 52 minutes after the initial blast, the autopsy indicated.

The injuries of Sheik Abdel Rashid Rahman, the spiritual advisor who unwittingly led U.S. forces to Zarqawi, were more extensive and included shrapnel wounds and a fatal skull fracture that may have been caused by shrapnel or being catapulted against a hard surface.

U.S. officials said both bodies were identified through DNA testing.

Army Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell IV, a military spokesman in Iraq, also said that from Saturday to Monday, U.S. and Iraqi forces conducted 140 operations nationwide, of which 11 were driven by intelligence gleaned after the attack on Zarqawi. American officials have said they found a “treasure trove” of information about Al Qaeda in Iraq amid the shattered remains. Raids based on that information were focused in and near Baghdad, Caldwell said.

U.S. and Iraqi troops killed 32 suspected insurgents and detained 178, including a “high-value” individual with a $50,000 bounty, Caldwell said. U.S. officials declined to identify that person, but the general said that an Iraqi tipster helped American troops make the arrest.

He also confirmed that U.S. troops inadvertently killed two boys -- a 6-month-old and a 6-year-old -- when soldiers engaged in a gun battle with suspected insurgents in the city of Baqubah, near where Zarqawi was killed last week. U.S. forces killed suspected insurgents and detained one man. The insurgents were on top of a building and fired on U.S. troops, Caldwell said.

Iraqi army Brig. Gen. Qassim Musawi said many of the U.S.-led raids relied on intelligence gathered before the attack on Zarqawi. He said at least three Iraqi army divisions participated in the operations in Baghdad and Baqubah.

A recent increase in U.S. military activity in the western city of Ramadi was unrelated to Zarqawi’s death, Caldwell said, and was planned before the airstrike against the insurgent leader.

Caldwell denied that a large-scale U.S. offensive was taking place in Ramadi, but acknowledged that American troops were conducting “intensified operations” to prepare the way for Iraqi police and army units. Ramadi is one of Iraq’s most violent cities and has been the scene of several large-scale insurgent attacks against recruits for the Iraqi police and army.

Also on Monday, a militant Islamic website announced that the leadership council of Al Qaeda in Iraq had chosen a new leader, Sheik Abu Hamza, also called Al Muhajir, or The Immigrant. U.S. officials said last week that they expected a shadowy operative known as Abu Ayyub Masri to take the reins of the organization.

In the attack on Zarqawi, a U.S. Air Force F-16 dropped the first of two 500-pound bombs about 6:12 p.m. Wednesday, Caldwell said. A short time later, the second bomb was dropped. Iraqi police, who rushed to the bomb site after hearing the explosions, were the first on the scene.

Caldwell said Iraqi police were not notified beforehand of Zarqawi’s whereabouts and were not part of the airstrike operation.

According to U.S. sources, special operations troops were the first Americans to arrive. Caldwell said U.S. military personnel were at the scene by about 6:40 p.m. Medics immediately attended to Zarqawi, Caldwell said, by securing his airway. At that point, Zarqawi, who was lapsing in and out of consciousness, spat out a large amount of blood, the general said. The militant leader’s breathing was “shallow and labored,” Caldwell said.

“The medic then checked his cardiac pulse, which was barely palpable and quickly deteriorated, and therefore he determined that Zarqawi’s death was imminent,” Caldwell said.

Zarqawi was dead by 7:04 p.m., Caldwell said. Rahman, the spiritual advisor, was already dead when Iraqi police arrived, U.S. officials said.

A five-person team of U.S. military and civilian forensic pathologists and medical examiners flew to Iraq to conduct the autopsies on Zarqawi and Rahman on Saturday. U.S. Army Col. Steve Jones, the commander surgeon for U.S. forces in Iraq, attended the autopsies and said the team used standard procedures developed by the National Assn. of Medical Examiners.

The team took X-rays of the bodies and then conducted autopsies that took two to three hours each.

Violent blast waves pressurized the air inside Zarqawi’s body and ruptured his lungs, said Jones and another forensic team member, who called in to a military news conference from the United States but declined to identify himself. “The injuries to his lungs were not survivable,” Jones said. “That’s what killed him.”

The bombs also ruptured Zarqawi’s eardrums and fractured his right leg. There were multiple bruises and cuts on his body, but none were fatal. Considering the size of the blasts, Zarqawi’s shrapnel wounds were minimal, Jones said.

Rahman sustained fractures of his skull, right knee, left elbow and several ribs. He also had massive internal injuries, including hemorrhaging in his brain and lungs. He died instantly, Jones said.

Autopsies were not performed on the bodies of four other people who died in the house. Three female bodies were taken to a local hospital, Caldwell said, and one male victim was delivered to the Iraqi Health Ministry.

Caldwell said the Iraqi government would eventually receive Zarqawi’s and Rahman’s bodies and determine what to do with them.