MOSCOW, Nov 21: Iraq has no confirmation but is checking reports Jordanian militant Abu Musab al Zarqawi may have been killed during fighting in northern Iraq, Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari said on Monday. Zebari said senior militants were present in a house in the city of Mosul when US and Iraqi forces stormed it on Saturday, causing some of those inside to blow themselves up, but it could not yet be determined if Zarqawi was among those killed.

US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, speaking to reporters in Iraq, said he did not believe Zarqawi had been killed.

The foreign minister told Reuters during a visit to Moscow: “We don’t have confirmation.

“In my view, I would say there must have been some key leaders of the insurgency, especially the fundamentalists — Al Qaeda type of people — so I would not be surprised if he could be one of those who blew himself up.”

“We know that American and Iraqi forces ... surrounded a house where there was fierce resistance and when the American and Iraqi forces jointly tried to storm the building the occupants blew themselves up, they committed suicide,” Zebari added.

“They believe there must have been some key leaders from the terrorists, from the fundamentalists who committed suicide instead of handing themselves up.”

The US ambassador sounded a note of caution.

“I do not believe that we got them,” Khalilzad said. “Of course the days are numbered, we are after him, we are getting closer to that goal but unfortunately ... we did not get him in Mosul.”

Zebari said only DNA tests could confirm if Zarqawi was among those killed, and said checks were being made.

Zarqawi’s Al Qaeda in Iraq group has carried out most of the deadliest bombings in the country and also claimed responsibility for the hotel bombings in Amman, Jordan, earlier this month.—Reuters