{"id":522,"date":"2005-01-20T21:45:32","date_gmt":"2005-01-21T03:45:32","guid":{"rendered":"\/?p=522"},"modified":"2005-01-20T22:15:42","modified_gmt":"2005-01-21T04:15:42","slug":"tape-al-zarqawi-aide-may-have-been-killed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/?p=522","title":{"rendered":"Tape: Al-Zarqawi Aide May Have Been Killed"},"content":{"rendered":"

A tape, a terrorist pep-rally speech<\/a> supposedly by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, has shown that one of the top bad guys is now taking that long dirt nap, Fallujah-style.<\/p>\n

A speaker believed to be al-Qaida’s leader in Iraq said in an audiotape found on the Internet Thursday that one of his top lieutenants was killed in last year’s U.S.-led assault on the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah.<\/p>\n

The speaker, claiming to be Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, said top aide Omar Hadid was killed during fighting in November when U.S. and Iraqi forces recaptured the city.<\/p>\n

It was the first public report by the insurgents that Hadid, a leading guerrilla commander in the city, was dead. It was widely believed that Hadid, who was in his 30s, fled the city as it was being attacked.<\/p>\n

“Days after the battle began, one of the commanders suggested to brother Omar Hadid and brother Abu Harith Mohammed Jasem al-Issawi to shave their beards and leave Fallujah through a safe exit so that they can start working from outside,” the speaker said.<\/p>\n

“The two heroes refused, saying: ‘By God we will not leave as long as there is one immigrant fighting in the city.’ They were martyred. May God’s mercy be upon them.”<\/p>\n

The authenticity of the tape could not immediately be verified.<\/p>\n

Al-Zarqawi hinted that the battle of Fallujah was the beginning of a long war.<\/p>\n

“Ferocious wars are not determined by the outcome of days or weeks,” the speaker on the tape said. “They take their time until it’s time to announce the victory of one of the parties.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Target Centermass translation: “Sure, we got our asses handed to us in our very own base. Sure, the Americans aren’t cutting and running like in Beirut and Mogadishu. Sure, I bailed out before anything even went down but c’mon, guys, you can still rise up and get out there and die. I’ll hopefully still be back here to behead any unarmed, bound folks you can bring me.”<\/p>\n

So long, Omar Hadid, we hardly knew ya.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A tape, a terrorist pep-rally speech supposedly by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, has shown that one of the top bad guys is now taking that long dirt nap, Fallujah-style. A speaker believed to be al-Qaida’s leader in Iraq said in an audiotape found on the Internet Thursday that one of his top lieutenants was killed in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,6,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","category-middle-east","category-war-on-terror"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=522"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}