Forum: F-16 News

Seems to me the heroes I.D.s are bound to get out.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said the $25 million bounty the U.S. put on al-Zarqawi's head would be honored, The Associated Press reported. "We will meet our promise," he told al-Arabiya television, the AP reported.

Air Force Lt. Gen. Gary North said two F-16s already in the air over Iraq were diverted to the target.

One jet acted as a targeting guide while the other first dropped a laser-guided bomb to ensure the house was hit, and then followed with a satellite-guided bomb to ensure it was destroyed, North said.

Casey said al-Zarqawi was dead when Iraqi security forces arrived on the scene minutes after the airstrike.

Among the five other people who died in the attack were al-Rahman, along with a woman and a child who had not yet been identified. (Watch how attacks turned nearby houses to heaps of cinder blocks -- 3:23)

In the hours following the airstrike, forces carried out 17 simultaneous raids in Baghdad and its outskirts, which Caldwell said yielded a "treasure trove" of information.

Al-Maliki and Casey announced al-Zarqawi's death to applause in Baghdad.

"Iraqis can rejoice," said Caldwell, who showed reporters photos of al-Zarqawi's body after the raid. "They have earned it with their blood, their sweat and their tears."

'Special place in hell'
In statements posted on two Islamic Web sites, al Qaeda in Iraq confirmed al-Zarqawi's death and urged its followers to continue the insurgent fight. "People of Islam, God will not let our enemies celebrate and spread corruption in the ground:.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair, a staunch Bush ally, said, "A blow for al Qaeda in Iraq is a blow for al Qaeda everywhere."

U.S. Sen. Joe Biden, a Delaware Democrat, was more direct. "There's a special place in hell reserved for him," he said of al-Zarqawi.

Caldwell said it was likely al-Zarqawi had planned for his death or capture and identified a replacement, possibly naming Egyptian-born Abu al-Masri as a successor. It was also likely that al Qaeda in Iraq would reassert itself to prove it was "still a viable insurgent organization," Caldwell said.

"Every time a Zarqawi appears we will kill him," al-Maliki said. "We will continue confronting whoever follows his path."

The ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan, told reporters, "We have to expect that there will be efforts made to attack us."

"The major problem Iraq has is not an insurgency -- which for the most part is not an al Qaeda creation -- but a sectarian feud and fighting," he said.

Allegiance to bin Laden
Al-Zarqawi, 39, gained notoriety in February 2003, when then-Secretary of State Colin Powell appeared before the U.N. Security Council to make his case supporting the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Powell pointed to al-Zarqawi, then believed to have been in Baghdad, as evidence that al Qaeda had a presence in Iraq. (Watch how al-Zarqawi's kin feel about his death -- :20)

Al-Zarqawi was the leader of one of the nation's many insurgent factions. In October 2004, al-Zarqawi pledged his allegiance to al Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden, and renamed his group al Qaeda in Iraq. (Relief for bin Laden?)

Al Qaeda in Iraq was blamed for brazen terrorist attacks, including a 2003 suicide bombing of U.N. headquarters in Baghdad that killed the U.N. envoy to Iraq and 21 others, and the November bombing of three hotels in Amman, Jordan, in which 60 people died.

Al-Zarqawi is believed to have been involved in the abductions and beheadings of several Western hostages. In addition, the United States believes al-Zarqawi had appealed to al Qaeda for help in starting a civil war in Iraq and encouraged sectarian violence. (Watch how al-Zarqawi murdered his way to the most-wanted list -- 2:50)

CNN's Jamie McIntyre, Barbara Starr, Henry Schuster and journalist Randa Habib contributed to this report.

Source: CNN

all men and women on iraq are heroes

It was GBU-12 500 pound LGBs. We would use these in high CD target areas and they also have a tight CEP. If you watch the video, in the last 10 seconds of time of flight (TOF) of the bomb (the count down is on the lower right side of the TGT Pod video) the "L" to the lower right side of the cross hairs is flashing - indicating the targeting pod is firing it's laser, i.e guiding the bomb. Some times when they drop JDAM they will still image the target with the pod, but the flashing "L" indicates they were guiding.