ALEX CHADWICK, host:
From the studios of NPR West, this is DAY TO DAY. I'm Alex Chadwick.
MADELEINE BRAND, host:
And I'm Madeleine Brand. The terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is dead. In Baghdad today, the U.S. military briefed reporters on the detail surrounding his killing in a U.S. military air strike yesterday. NPR Correspondent Jamie Tarabay is with us now from Iraq. She was at that briefing. And Jamie, what did the American general in charge who was speaking at that briefing, what did he say about how this operation went down?
JAMIE TARABAY reporting:
Major General Bill Caldwell showed a series of slides detailing the operation starting with the intelligence that the coalition forces had received that helped them track down Zarqawi to a safe house along an isolated road in the town of Baqubah which is just northeast of Baghdad. There was a series of strikes, two 500-pound bombs were dropped on this house and this was at 6:15 on Wednesday evening. And Zarqawi along with the person that they described as his spiritual advisor and four people, including a woman and a child were killed in this attack.
BRAND: How did the military track him down?
TARABAY: Well they won't give specifics. The military said that it relied heavily on intelligence and informants from Zarqawi's militant group and people who have connections with this group and people who have connections this man they Sheik Abdel Rahman, who they described as his spiritual advisor. They say that different bits of information all came together just in the time and place that Zarqawi was going to be at this particular house, and they say, Major General Caldwell said he was absolutely one hundred percent beyond the doubt sure that Zarqawi was in that house when the strike launched.
BRAND: Zarqawi was accused of being behind many of the kidnappings, beheadings in Iraq, a lot of the violence between Sunnis and Shiites. What's the reaction there in Iraq?
TARABAY: There's a lot of relief and people are incredibly happy here particularly in Shiite cities across the country. In his last communication, Zarqawi had urged Sunnis to kill Iraqi Shiites and he said that they were infidels and that this and - So the Shiites cities of Najaf and Basra, for example, people were shooting in the streets in celebration firing into the air. Women were outside ululating and in the Sadr - Sadr City which is a slum in Baghdad is a Shiite area - they're planning festivities for tomorrow as well.
BRAND: And another big news item today, three major positions filled in the Iraqi government. Tell us about those and who's in them?
TARABAY: It's taken Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki 20 days to finally get parliament approval for the defense, interior and national security advisor positions to be filled. The defense minister is actually a ground forces commander and he's a Sunni Arab and the interior minister is a Shiite who has absolutely no connection to the sectarian militia, which was the biggest concern by not just the other Iraqi political parties but the U.S. Administration as well. They wanted someone who was not affiliated with the militia, who wouldn't be accused of carrying out sectarian driven killings and detentions over Sunni Arabs for example.
BRAND: NPR Correspondent Jamie Tarabay in Baghdad. Thank you very much.
TARABAY: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
