Al Qaeda leader in Iraq Abu Musab al Zarqawi died from injuries consistent with those from a blast bomb, a US military spokesman said today.
The military also said that he lived for almost an hour after the first US bomb struck his hideout north of Baghdad last Wednesday.
"This (his death) was approximately 24 minutes after the coalition forces arrived and approximately 52 minutes after the first strike on the safehouse," Major General William Caldwell, chief US military spokesman, told a news conference.
Maj Gen Caldwell said a US medic treated Zarqawi as he lapsed in and out of consciousness and bled through his nose.
"At approximately 6:40 p.m. coalition forces were on the scene and took possession of Zarqawi in order to positively identify him both visually and by searching for known scars," he said.
A US medical officer, Colonel Stephen Jones, told the same briefing that Zarqawi died from blast waves caused by the bombs, adding that he must have been in an enclosed space.
Maj Gen Caldwell said the fate of the body would be discussed with Iraq's government.
He said the bodies of three women killed in the air strikes were taken to a local hospital. The US military has said a total of six people were killed in the raid in the village of Hibhib north of Baghdad.
Zarqawi, a Jordanian-born Sunni Arab militant, was blamed for some of Iraq's bloodiest attacks since US forces invaded Iraq in 2003 to topple Saddam Hussein.
Iraqi leaders said Zarqawi's death was a major blow to al Qaeda in Iraq but no one expects violence to end anytime soon. Al Qaeda in Iraq on Sunday vowed to carry out large-scale attacks to "shake the enemy" after Zarqawi's death.
Agencies