Zarqawi buried at secret site inside Iraq, says security chief

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, has been buried at a secret location in the country, thwarting calls for his body to be repatriated to Jordan.

Iraq's national security adviser, Mouwafak al-Rubaie, said yesterday that Zarqawi's body had been handed over by the US military and buried in accordance with Muslim traditions. "The Iraqi authorities recently buried the body of Zarqawi in a marked but secret place," he told Reuters.

The fate of the militant leader's body has troubled US authorities since he was killed in an airstrike north-east of Baghdad last month. A report by the rightwing Washington Institute for Near East Policy warned that his grave could become a rallying point for Islamists if its whereabouts became public knowledge.

Such fears were echoed in a statement by al-Qaida leader, Osama Bin Laden, released on the internet last week. Bin Laden said Jordan's leaders feared an outburst of support if the "lion of jihad" were to be buried in his home town of Zarqa, north of the capital, Amman. "What scares you about Zarqawi after his death is that [his funeral] will be huge and will show the degree of sympathy Muslims have for the mujahideen," Bin Laden said.

Relatives yesterday demanded that his body be sent home. "Even if he is buried in Iraq we will continue to ask for the body to be transferred and buried in Jordan," Zarqawi's brother Saleh al-Khalayleh told Associated Press.

"We will never accept that a Jordanian dies abroad and not be allowed burial in his homeland."

Zarqawi remains a controversial figure in Jordan, where initial support for his role in the Iraqi insurgency was shattered after at least 60 people died in three suicide bombings of Amman hotels last year.

Polls last month showed 59% of Jordanians consider him a terrorist and only 15% think him a martyr, but he remains popular with some Islamists. Four Islamist parliamentarians are facing charges of inciting sectarianism after visiting Zarqawi's family to deliver condolences after his death last month.

Zarqawi's successor as leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, Abu Ayyub al-Masri, was also named on a most-wanted list issued by the Iraqi government yesterday, alongside Saddam Hussein's first wife and eldest daughter.

Raghad, the daughter, lives freely in Amman and was involved in organising Saddam's legal defence. His first wife and cousin, Sajida Khairallah Tulfah, who was also listed, is thought to be living in Qatar.

Violence in Baghdad continued over the weekend with at least 66 people killed in the bombing of an outdoor market in a Shia district. There was also a series of apparent tit-for-tat kidnapping attempts of both Sunni and Shia MPs.

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