Blogoland

Some thinly-sourced, speculative reports out tonight that Musab al-Zarqawi may have died following an explosion in Mosul. The single anonymous quote here from AP.

In Washington, a U.S. official said the identities of the terror suspects killed was unknown. Asked if they could include al-Zarqawi, the official replied: "There are efforts under way to determine if he was killed."

That seems like some weak stuff to me. Arab outlets seem to be more confident, but the sourcing on this is non-existent. And remember, Zarqawi has been killed off about half-a-dozen times prior to this, so we'll have to see and hope.

UPDATE: Not much new, just a lot of echoes and speculation. But I can't let this pass from Daily Pundit, who quotes an Associated Press story that appeared on the LAT's website:

U.S. forces sealed off a house in the northern city of Mosul where eight suspected Al Qaeda members died in a gunfight -- some by their own hand to avoid capture. A U.S. official said today that efforts were under way to determine if terror leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was among the dead.

Insurgents, meanwhile, killed an American soldier and a Marine in separate attacks over the weekend, while a British soldier was killed by a roadside bomb in the south.

Daily Pundit opines thus:

Above is an example of how the liberal mainstream media reports any possibility of good news from Iraq - a passing nod to whatever the good news might be, immediately followed by as much bad news from Iraq as they can slip in.

Uh, clearly, Mr. Daily Pundit didn't catch that "By The Associated Press" byline, because he then unwittingly goes on to quote approvingly to an update from, yes, the same AP linked to by WTOP's website. He introduces it by noting: "Below is an example of reporting of the same incident from an actual journalism outlet, rather than a band of liberal and left-wing hack propagandists."

Hey, dumbass. It's the same liberal, left-wing hack propagandist outlet reporting the same story. One story was clearly what is called a "Lead-all" which had a double-barrelled lead including a round-up of all that happened in Iraq that day. The other was a straight piece that focused on the Zarqawi speculation.

Anyone can be a press critic. Unless they're idiots. Then they should just shut up.