By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
A top US commander in Iraq said Tuesday he has "absolutely no reason" to believe the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, died in a weekend raid in Mosul.
Lt. Gen. John Vines, chief of the Multi-National Corps Iraq, also confirmed that US officials have the ability to determine if al-Zarqawi was there.
"I am told that there is a DNA database of some of his relatives that is able to be compared against some of those who were killed there," Vines told reporters. "If he had been in one of those houses that were part of the objective, we could confirm that."
Iraq's foreign minister has said that tests were being done to determine if al-Zarqawi was one of those killed.