Two hostages survive Zarqawi's lair and US attack in Iraq

[Barrett808]

BAGHDAD (AFP) - Charbel and Aram were lucky, extremely lucky.

Held hostage for 27 days by Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi's men, who have slit throats and hacked the heads off other captives, they emerged alive from Fallujah -- but only just.

Last Tuesday, the day their captors had promised to free them, US warplanes struck. Aram Nalbandian, aged 47, and 31-year-old Charbel Karam al-Hajj, spent two hours under the debris of the demolished building.

The first had his leg broken; the second his pelvis.

The US military said it had targeted Zarqawi's militants who it believed were planning "suicide attacks and kidnappings".

According to the two Lebanese, five fighters were killed in the attack. The group never discloses its losses and buries its "martyrs" immediately, by-passing hospital morgues.

(more)

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20041014/wl_mideast_afp/iraq_lebanon_hostages&cid=1514&ncid=1480

[daleo]

1. So, all the people in hospital after bombings are civilians, then

"According to the two Lebanese, five fighters were killed in the attack. The group never discloses its losses and buries its "martyrs" immediately, by-passing hospital morgues."

There is no claim that they acually ever saw the ever elusive Zarqawi, either.