Iran Says It's Happy al-Zarqawi Is Dead
By Associated Press

3:31 AM PDT, June 11, 2006

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran, whose relations with Iraq have warmed since the ouster of Saddam Hussein, said Sunday it was pleased about the death of al-Qaida in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

"It is natural that we, like the Iraqi people, are happy from this occurrence," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told reporters.

Iran, a majority Shiite Muslim country, has close ties to the Shiite parties that now dominate Iraq's government.

Al-Zarqawi, who was killed in a U.S. airstrike Wednesday, was the most wanted leader of the Sunni-dominated insurgency in Iraq.

U.S. officials have said al-Zarqawi crossed Iran when he fled Afghanistan to Iraq in late 2001 or early 2002. Biographies of al-Zarqawi written by sympathizers and posted on Islamic Web sites have had similar accounts.

Iran said in 2004 that some al-Qaida operatives may have illegally passed through Iran from Afghanistan months before the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks, but it has not given any names.

Iran insists it has made a significant contribution to the war on terror by arresting al-Qaida agents, but the United States accuses Tehran of harboring -- not cracking down on -- al-Qaida fugitives.


Copyright 2006 Los Angeles Times