Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the most wanted man in Iraq, is alive and always wears an explosive belt, Britain's Sunday Times reported. Citing a leader of an Iraqi resistance group who said he had recently spent time with Zarqawi, the newspaper said al-Zarqawi wore the belt at all times -- even when asleep.
"He told me: 'I would rather blow myself up and die as a martyr -- and kill a few Americans along the way -- than be humiliated by them," Sheikh Abu Omar al-Ansari, leader of the Jeish al Taiifa al Mansoura (Army of the Victorious Sect) group, was quoted as saying.
The report said Ansari's contact with Zarqawi was during a two day meeting to negotiate cooperation between al Qaeda and opposition groups within Iraq. The newspaper said Zarqawi spent five hours a day studying the Koran.
U.S. officials have said in the past that Zarqawi was believed to have lost a leg in a bombing. But Ansari was quoted as saying Zarqawi had both legs and walked "with confidence and balance".
