No Leads

At one point we nearly almost captured him; then we wounded him...

And now we lost al-Zarqawi.

American forces have had no good leads on the whereabouts of the rebel leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi since finding his laptop computer in February, but believe that reports of his wounding suggest his group may be in disarray.

US troops seized the Jordanian militant's driver, an aide and his laptop computer - which included personal photos saved under "My Pictures" - at a roadblock near Ramadi nearly three months ago and believed they were closing in on Zarqawi.

Since then there have been reports that the militant leader, whose group claims to have carried out many of the deadliest attacks in Iraq, was wounded during fighting near Ramadi. Unconfirmed reports said he was nearing death.

But a senior US military official played down any suggestion yesterday that the net was tightening on America's most-wanted man after Osama bin Laden, even if there are indications, he said, that Zarqawi's group is in turmoil.

"I can say categorically that I am not aware of anybody having a definite sighting of Zarqawi at any particular place at any particular time," the official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told a group of reporters at a briefing in Baghdad. "I can't tell you that we saw him on March 27, or that we saw him in Ramadi hospital ...

"There are a lot of Zarqawi sightings going on and it's a case of which one do you roll to and why is it that that tip is more valuable than the last one," he said, suggesting that many tips on Zarqawi's whereabouts prove to be non-starters.