US Central Command officials in Iraq say that a US Air Force F-16 delivered two 500-pound bombs on an “identified, isolated safe house,” killing the al Qaeda brain in Iraq—Abu Musab al-Zarqawi—and one of his key lieutenants. The air strikes flown by two USAF Vipers took place July 7 at 6:15 p.m. Baghdad time. Officials said that tips and intelligence led them to target the safe house, located about five miles north of Baqubah. Zarqawi has been the mastermind for al Qaeda terrorist attacks in Iraq for years and was one of al Qaeda’s top three leaders worldwide. (Read the statement by President Bush and a report of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s notification to NATO.)
Special-ops aviators, a physicist from the intelligence community, and an enlisted Marine with decades of deployments: U.S. Space Command’s military and civilian leaders who spoke May 7 were as likely to come from strictly space backgrounds as not. These are some of the day’s insights from inside the command, which…