Women clothing among debris of bombed Zarqawi house

HIBHIB, Iraq, June 10 : Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was accompanied by women who wore skimpy night clothing, and read magazines on current affairs and militant propaganda, an inspection of the house he was killed in showed today.

The remains of Zarqawi's isolated ''safe house'' also suggested that the al Qaeda leader in Iraq and his companions -- which an Iraqi army officer said included two women and an eight-year-old girl -- lived with few luxuries.

The US military took reporters to the site in the village of Hibhib, near the town of Baquba north of Baghdad, three days after the death of Zarqawi, blamed for beheading hostages and killings hundreds of people in suicide bombings.

At the site surrounded by palm groves, two thin foam mattresses were scattered among the debris of smashed concrete and twisted metal.

There were few clues on Zarqawi's extreme ideology or the militant groups he was linked to in the rubble of the building that was pulverised by two 500-pound bombs in a US air strike on Wednesday.

One leaflet identified a radio station in Latifiya south of the capital as an apparent target. A few feet away was a magazine picture of former US President Franklin D Roosevelt.

Also beside the slabs of concrete was a woman's leopard skin nightgown and other skimpy women's clothes.

The US military had said the air strike killed a total of six people, three males and three females.

It yesterday said that a wounded Zarqawi was still alive when US troops reached the site but died shortly afterwards.

Looking over the site where Iraq's most wanted man may have been plotting more suicide bombs, an Iraqi soldier said he felt a great sense of relief.

''I feel good. Zarqawi is dead. Thank you America,'' said Adel Hussein, 33, a resident of the area.

US officers at the scene said they had been alerted to an operation but were not told that Zarqawi was the target of the air strike until the next morning.

Hibhib, about 70 km north of Baghdad, is typical of the rural Iraqi villages where US troops hunt Sunni Arab insurgents and al Qaeda militants.

It is located in Diyala province, a volatile mix of majority Shi'ites and Arab Sunnis and Kurds that has suffered some of the grisliest violence. Zarqawi is said to have moved to Diyala as part of a strategy of constantly moving around Iraq to evade US and Iraqi forces.

US President George W Bush yesterday said that the death of the Jordanian-born Sunni Arab militant will not end the violence in Iraq but will ''help a lot.''

Reuters