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Fact Sheet: Major Attacks Claimed By al-Zarqawi

Here are some major attacks, killings claimed by Jordanian terror suspect Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and his followers:

2005:

  • Dec. 27: Volley of rockets fired from southern Lebanon into Israel.
  • Nov. 9: Triple suicide bombing against hotels in Jordan, killing 60.
  • Aug. 19: Rocket attack in the Jordanian port city of Aqaba, killing Jordanian soldier. One Katyusha rocket lands in neighboring Israel-- causing no casualties - and another misses a U.S. Navy ship docked at Aqaba.
  • May 7: Two explosives-laden cars plow into an American security company convoy in Baghdad, killing at least 22 people - including two Americans.
  • Feb. 28: Suicide car bomber strikes crowd of police and Iraqi National Guard recruits in the southern city of Hillah, killing 125 people.

    2004:

  • Dec. 19: Car bombs tear through funeral procession in Najaf and main bus station in nearby Karbala, killing at least 60 in the Shiite holy cities.
  • Oct. 30: Body of hostage Shosei Koda, 24, of Japan, is found decapitated in Baghdad, his body wrapped in an American flag.
  • Sept. 30: Bombings in Baghdad kill 35 children and seven adults as U.S. troops hand out candy at the inauguration of a sewage treatment plant. Al-Zarqawi's group claims responsibility for attacks that day, but it is unclear if these include the explosions that killed the children.
  • Sept. 16: British engineer Kenneth Bigley, and U.S. engineers Jack Hensley and Eugene "Jack" Armstrong kidnapped in Baghdad. By Oct. 10, 2004, all three men have been confirmed beheaded.
  • Sept. 14: Car bomb rips through a busy market near a Baghdad police headquarters where Iraqis are waiting to apply for jobs, killing 47.
  • Sept. 13: Video purportedly from al-Qaida in Iraq shows Durmus Kumdereli, a Turkish truck driver, being beheaded.
  • Aug. 2: Video from followers of al-Zarqawi showing shooting death of hostage Murat Yuce of Turkey.
  • June 29: Bulgarian truck drivers Georgi Lazov, 30, and Ivaylo Kepov, 32, are kidnapped. Al-Zarqawi's followers suspected of decapitating both men.
  • June 22: Kidnappers behead South Korean hostage Kim Sun-il; Al-Jazeera television says the killing was carried out by al-Zarqawi's group.
  • June 14: Car bomb attack on a vehicle convoy in Baghdad kills 13, including three General Electric employees.
  • May 18: Car bomb assassinates Iraqi Governing Council president Abdel-Zahraa Othman.
  • May 11: Kidnapped American businessman Nicholas Berg is beheaded while being videotaped, and the voice of the knife-wielder is identified as al-Zarqawi's.
  • March 2: Coordinated blasts from suicide bombers, mortars and planted explosives strike Shiite Muslim shrines in Karbala and Baghdad, killing at least 181. U.S. and Iraqi officials link the attacks to al-Zarqawi.

    2003:

  • Aug. 29: Car bomb in Najaf kills more than 85 people, including Ayatollah Mohammad Baqr al-Hakim, leader of the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq.
  • Aug. 19: Truck bombing of U.N. headquarters in Baghdad kills 23, including top U.N. envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello.

    2002:

  • Oct. 28: Laurence Foley, a diplomat and administrator of U.S. aid programs in Jordan, is gunned down outside his home in Amman.

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