Zarqawi video shows him struggling with gun

Images released by the US, apparently of al Qaeda's Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Picture / Reuters

BAGHDAD - The US military said it was hot on the heels of the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, after discovering documents and an unedited video of him in a rural hideout near Baghdad.

Zarqawi was throwing all his resources into attacks in Baghdad and was probably somewhere south of the capital where US forces recently launched a series of raids, US military spokesman Major-General Rick Lynch said.

"We believe it is only a matter of time until Zarqawi is taken down. It's not if, but when," he said.

"Zarqawi is zooming in on Baghdad, we are zooming in on Zarqawi."

Lynch showed brief clips from what he said was an unedited copy of a video Zarqawi released last week, showing the al Qaeda leader wearing American running shoes, struggling to handle a machine gun and handing the weapon to one of his aides, who appears to fumble with it as he grabs the gun's hot muzzle.

In the version Zarqawi posted on the internet and that aired on television, Zarqawi is seen poring over maps, receiving battle reports and firing bursts from an automatic weapon in a video in which he warned of more attacks.

But at his weekly media briefing, Lynch mocked Zarqawi for wearing sneakers and suggested he was unable to fire a weapon.

"What he didn't show you were the clips that I showed you: wearing New Balance sneakers with his uniform, surrounded by supposedly competent subordinates who grab the hot barrel of a just-fired machine gun, ... a warrior leader, Zarqawi, who doesn't understand how to operate his weapons system.

"It makes you wonder."

- REUTERS