Zarqawi was alive after bombing - US general

WASHINGTON, June 9 (Reuters) Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was alive and made a move to escape when US troops reached the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, mortally wounded in an American bombing raid, a US general said today.

''We were not aware yesterday that in fact, Zarqawi was alive when US forces arrived on the site,'' Maj Gen William Caldwell, the spokesman for the US military in Baghdad, told Fox News.

Iraqi police had arrived on the scene of Wednesday's bomb attack first and put Zarqawi on a stretcher, Caldwell said. The US forces arrived later and identified Zarqawi, who died shortly after.

''He was conscious initially according to the US forces that physically saw him. He obviously had some kind of visual recognition of who they were because he attempted to roll off the stretcher, as I am told, and get away, realizing it was US military,'' Caldwell said.

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