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Terror Leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi Buried | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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BAGHDAD, Iraq, AP -Slain terror leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has been buried in a “secret location” in Baghdad, Iraq’s national security adviser said.

Mouwafak al-Rubaie would not say when the Jordanian-born militant, who was killed June 7 in a U.S. airstrike northeast of Baghdad, was buried or give any specifics on the location of the grave.

The U.S. military confirmed the burial but declined to give details.

“The remains of Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi were turned over to the appropriate government of Iraq officials and buried in accordance with Muslim customs and traditions,” the military said in an e-mail statement. “Anything further than that would be addressed by the Iraqi government.”

Al-Zarqawi’s family had called for his body to be returned to Jordan for burial, but the government in Amman had refused because of the triple suicide bombing his al-Qaida in Iraq organization carried out in the country last year.

The Amman bombings, which killed 60 people, sparked widespread outrage among Jordanians who had been sympathetic to insurgents battling the U.S. military presence in Iraq.

The U.S. military listed al-Zarqawi’s cause of death as “primary blast injury of the lung” following an autopsy. Officials said he survived for nearly an hour after the airstrike outside Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad.