BAGHDAD, June 8: Painstak-ing intelligence gathering and sources inside Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s network enabled US forces to pinpoint his location and kill the Al Qaeda leader, the US military said on Thursday.

Major General William Caldwell told a news conference that it took detailed planning before two F-16 fighter jets dropped two 227-kg bombs on a house in a village north of Baghdad and killed the most wanted man in Iraq.

He said a breakthrough came while US forces were trailing Zarqawi’s spiritual adviser, Sheikh Abdul-Rahman.

“This gentleman was key to our success in finding Zarqawi. He was a top lieutenant of his and was identified several weeks ago by military sources and sources inside Zarqawi’s network,” Gen Caldwell said.

“Through painstaking intelligence efforts we were able to start tracking him, monitoring his movements ... Last night, he went to meet (Zarqawi) again when the decision was made to go ahead and strike that target,” he added.

“What everyone needs to understand is the strike last night did not occur in a 24-hour period.”

“It truly was a very long, painstaking, deliberate exploitation of intelligence, information gathering, human sources, electronics, signal intelligence that was done over a period of time, many, many weeks,” Gen Caldwell said.

There were six people in the house, including a woman and a child, but only Zarqawi and Abdul-Rahman have been identified. Zarqawi’s identification was verified at 1130 GMT on Thursday, Gen Caldwell said.

Forensic experts are conducting a DNA test on Zarqawi and results are expected in 48 hours, he added.

Two photographs of the corpse of the bearded Zarqawi with his eyes shut were displayed at the news conference. His body lay in a pool of blood. His nostrils were filled with blood and there were gashes to his cheek and forehead.

Gen Caldwell said important information was found at the location that led to 17 simultaneous raids later that night in Baghdad and its outskirts that uncovered a ‘treasure trove’ of information.—Reuters