U.S. Denies Reports Al-Zarqawi Killed
21 November 2005 -- U.S. forces left a cordoned area around a house in northern Iraq today following a gun battle in which eight suspected Al-Qaeda members were killed and 11 American soldiers were wounded.
Earlier, a White House spokesman in Washington dismissed reports that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, head of the Al-Qaeda group in Iraq, may have been among those killed in the 19 November shootout in Mosul.
In other violence, at least four civilians were killed when a car bomb blew up today in Kanan, northeast of Baghdad.
In the capital, three people, including one police officer, were killed by gunmen.
Also today, Iraq's Foreign Ministry said a national reconciliation conference, expected to take place in late February or early March in Baghdad, will decide on and call for a timetable for withdrawing foreign troops from Iraq.
The decision was reached on 20 November at an Arab League-sponsored meeting in Cairo.
(AP/AFP)
THE COMPLETE STORY: RFE/RL's complete coverage of events in Iraq and that country's ongoing transition.