WASHINGTON: Al Qaeda's number two Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is rumoured to have been killed in Iraq, but the US expressed scepticism about it, saying it was "highly unlikely."
Reacting to a report on Zarqawi's death by Stratfor or Strategic Forecasting Intelligence, a private intelligence company, White House spokesman Trent Duffy, who was accompanying US President George W Bush to China, said the story was "highly unlikely not credible."
Zarqawi may have been among a group of insurgents killed in battle in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul on Saturday, the Stratfor report said on Sunday.
There are unconfirmed rumors from multiple sources in the Middle East that the Al Qaeda frontman was killed in a raid by U.S. forces in Mosul, it said, adding that the report cannot be verified and the intelligence firm will be watching for other evidence.
The Jordanian-born Al Qaeda leader is the most wanted man in Iraq with a US bounty of $ 25 million on his head for spearheading insurgent attacks.
The reports came as family members of Jordanian-born Al Qaida in Iraq chief Abu Musab al-Zarqawi renounced the terror leader, telling King Abdullah II that they were to "sever links with him until doomsday."
Fifty seven members of the Al-Khalayleh family, including Al-Zarqawi's brother and cousin, reiterated their strong allegiance to the King.
Al-Zarqawi, whose real name is Ahmed Fadeel Nazzal al-Khalayleh, claimed responsibility for the Nov. 9 deadly attacks on three Amman hotels, which killed 58 people and had threatened to kill the King in an audiotape Friday.
