Local News

<< Previous   of   Next >> Niki Desautels / The Herald  (click to enlarge) Ali al Abadi (left) Mohamed al Ameedi (center) and Adil Rikabi (right) watch the Al Iraqiya news channel in the back of the Halal Market in Everett on Thursday. The death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, one of Iraq's most-wanted terrorists, was met with cheers from local Iraqi immigrants.   ADVERTISEMENT   CONTACT THE HERALD Robert Frank, City Editor frank@heraldnet.com   Published: Friday, June 9, 2006 News of Zarqawi's death cheers Iraqi immigrants Immigrants call demise of terror chief a turning point By Krista J. Kapralos / Herald Writer EVERETT - The first thing Adnan al Hamadani did after he heard the news late Wednesday night was telephone his relatives in Iraq. Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is dead, he told them. But his relatives didn't believe it. Zarqawi, anointed by Osama bin Laden as the "prince of al-Qaida in Iraq" and by U.S. officials as the country's top terrorist, was too powerful, they said. For years, claims of his death were repeatedly proved wrong. The electricity was out, and until it was restored, the relatives in Iraq wouldn't see the newscasts of American officials holding photographs of a dead al-Zarqawi, his body bruised and bloodied from the bomb attack that killed him. "That's why they show these pictures," al Hamadani said, pointing at a television tuned to Al Iraqiya, an Iraqi news channel that repeatedly flashed the photographs. "Without them, no one would believe it." Three years ago, post-mortem photographs of Uday Hussein and Qusay Hussein, the sons of former dictator Saddam Hussein, were widely circulated in part to convince Iraqis that they were truly dead. Iraqi refugees in Everett never questioned al-Zarqawi's death. "The TV shows his body. They prove it!" Haidar al Robaei said. "Of course we are happy today. To our relatives in Iraq, we say, 'Congratulations.' " Al-Zarqawi's death is a sign that the United States is winning the war in Iraq, Mohamed al Ameedi said. "Anyone who says the U.S. is not winning is lying," he said. "They're stopping terrorists. They stopped Saddam." When al Ameedi and his wife have a child, he said they plan to name it after President George W. Bush. Most of Everett's Iraqis fled the Middle East in the mid-1990s, long before al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian, gained a foothold. Still, many Americans confuse al-Zarqawi and al-Qaida in Iraq with typical Muslims, local Iraqis said. Ali al Abadi drives a taxi in Everett. When passengers discover that he is Muslim, they are fearful, he said. "They say, 'Please don't hurt me,' " al Abadi said. Americans should credit Iraqi refugees in the U.S. with helping American troops in Iraq, al Abadi said. Refugees are used as interpreters and for intelligence, al Abadi said. They've saved the lives of U.S. soldiers. "A lot of Americans don't know that," al Abadi said. Reporter Krista J. Kapralos: 425-339-3422 or kkapralos@heraldnet.com.

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