Zarqawi Wounded?

The news that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi may have been wounded, reported at a jihadi web site, dominated US television news on Tuesday.

I'm not sure why. A report on a web site cannot be verified. Al-Zarqawi's group may be trying to throw the United States off his trail. Or the report could be a black psy-ops operation of Donald Rumsfeld.

Nor is it new news. There have been rumors for some time that the US military surrounded Ramadi and its hospital to get at Zarqawi, who was wounded, but that he managed to slip away.

If Zarqawi did die, what difference would it make? He is responsible for only a fraction of the violence in Iraq, and has lots of jihadi lieutenants who would gladly take his place.

So, we cannot know if it is true. If it is true it is old news. And it wouldn't matter much to the situation in Iraq. I'd file that under "not a story."