Maybe ! And if that is the case then it makes you wonder if its actualy zarqawi who was planning all those bommings or the civilians themselfs as some sort of paiback for someones lost mother or father or child. Something like revenge for the deaths of ones loved one!
The insurgency in Iraq is fairly nebulous; you have the foreign fighters/terrorists (a minority group, but who get a lot of publication as 'justification' for the war), the Saddam / shia loyalists, the Sunni groups (such as Al-Sadrs bunch), and also people who are simply common criminals (such as the many who kidnap for money; although foreign hostages get the most publicity, there is a shocking amount of kidnapping going on of Iraqis).
Regardless of this the fact that they needed an airstrike to take him out just goes to prove that the US is nowhere near in control of the situation as it lets on to believe.
Also what dont the US or the CIA have some sort of hitmen to take him out with a sniper rifle from several hundreds of metters away..???
But still as long as no civilians got caough in the strike its all good!
It's arguably a lot, lot harder to get someone like Al-Zaqwari with a sniper rifle. Even with distance, it's likely the area will be full of sympathisers or simply just ordinary Iraqis hostile to the Americans; securing a site for a sniper to base themselves could be very difficult depending on how urban it is (offhand I think this was more remote, so not so much). On top of that, there's a difficulty of timing - getting a sniper quietly infiltrated in time without spooking him (i.e. not choppering in near to the location - and odds are he won't stay there long before moving, so you need to move that sniper in quick).
Whilst the SAS in particular are very good at bunkering down somewhere, surveilling, and taking a shot, none of those are particualrly suited here; it's simply easier and - more importantly - quicker to send in a bomber than have a x man crew yomp across the desert, quite possibly only to find the target has buggered off into the sunset.
As an aside, I should probably note it is a good thing this murdering bastard is dead, even if my tone has been somewhat negative. The problem is that i know this will be turned into a whitewashing piece of propaganda, and that annoys me, because it's the actions of my country-and-others that allowed this guy to come to such prominance.
