Bush says Zarqawi's killing 'good thing'-spokesman

WASHINGTON, June 8 (Reuters) US President George W Bush's first response to learning that al Qaeda leader in Iraq Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed was ''that would be a good thing,'' White House spokesman Tony Snow said today.

Bush will make a statement at 1700 hrs IST (1130 GMT) TOday on the killing of Zarqawi in an air raid, a White House official said.

Zarqawi, blamed for the beheading of foreign captives and the death of hundreds in suicide bombings, had been tracked by Special Forces to the Iraqi city of Baquba north of Baghdad where he was killed, Snow said.

Bush was informed by national security adviser Stephen Hadley at 4:35 p.m. (local time) yesterday in the Oval Office that it was believed Zarqawi was dead, and Bush replied, ''That would be a good thing,'' Snow said.

At 0640 hrs IST (0110 GMT Thursday), Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, called Hadley and told him that markings on the body and fingerprints matched those of Zarqawi, Snow said. It will probably be another day before DNA evidence comes back, he said.

''Special Forces had been tracking him and people close to him, and they had very good reason to believe, because of some of the traffic in and out of the building, that Zarqawi was there,'' Snow said.

REUTERS KD ND1714