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Most wanted man ‘not in Iran’

Tehran/London, afp/pti:

A London paper says that a shrapnel entered Zarqawi’s right shoulder and ripped open his chest. He is being moved to a non-Arab country for treatment.

Iran on Sunday rejected a British newspaper report that Al-Qaeda's leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, has fled the country for emergency surgery in the Islamic republic.

"It is a naive fabrication of the news... Just like other things that have been said before," Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told reporters.

He said Iran was a "crystal clear country where nothing remains hidden."

The Sunday Times newspaper reported that Zarqawi was moved to Iran after a US air strike left him with shrapnel lodged in his chest. The front-page report quoted a senior insurgent commander in close contact with his group.

Jordanian-born Zarqawi, who is being blamed for suicide bombings, assassinations and beheadings of western hostages, including the Liverpool engineer Ken Bigley, has suffered from bouts of high fever since being wounded by a missile that struck his convoy three weeks ago as he fled an American offensive near al-Qaim town in northwestern Iraq.

Zarqawi's condition late last week was described as stable, but supporters were preparing to move him to another "non-Arab" country for an operation to remove the shrapnel, the report said.

The commander revealed that Zarqawi had suffered two serious shrapnel wounds and light burns as a result of the missile attack. "Shrapnel went in between the right shoulder and his chest, ripped it open and is still stuck in there," he was quoted as saying by the paper.

The second piece of shrapnel penetrated the same area of Zarqawi's chest but exited from his back. "There was concern about spinal injuries," the commander said. "But his ability to move eliminated that fear."

Zarqawi was carried to the other vehicles and taken to a hideout where he received basic first aid. He initially refused to be taken to hospital, but according to the commander his condition deteriorated.

When Zarqawi became delirious with fever four days later, aides took him to the general hospital in Ramadi, 80 km west of Baghdad, the paper said. According to the report, the US forces may have lost their chance of capturing or killing him for now. "If he's got to Iran, there's not much we can do," said one.