By Kim Sengupta
Baghdad - Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the most wanted insurgent in Iraq, has been wounded in fighting, the group he leads said on Tuesday.
A statement issued by al-Qaeda in Iraq said the Jordanian born militant had been injured "in the path of God" and urged Muslims to pray for him.
The announcement came after reports that Zarqawi, described as Osama bin Laden's "emir" in the country, was brought in for treatment, heavily bleeding, to a hospital in the city of Ramadi.
US authorities, who had placed a $25-million bounty on the 37-year-old Jordanian's head - the same price as that on Bin Laden's - were cautious about the claim, saying that it could not be immediately verified.
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However, Iraqi government officials in Baghdad pointed out that this was the first time that al-Qaeda in Iraq had issued such a statement about their leader and that it had been posted on an Islamist website normally used by his group. They also said there had been similar reports from other sources.
Al-Qaeda in its statement did not give any details of the circumstances surrounding the injury.
The US military has been investigating a doctor's account of how he allegedly treated a heavily bleeding Zarqawi who had been brought into the General Hospital in Ramadi.
Al-Qaeda in Iraq has gained a grim reputation for executing Iraqi and foreign hostages and Zarqawi is alleged to have carried out some of the killings.
- This article was originally published on page 1 of Cape Times on May 25, 2005
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