THE terrorist mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, wanted for some of the most devastating attacks in Iraq, is injured and may be dying, according to a message posted yesterday on an Islamic website sympathetic to his cause.

“O nation of Islam . . . Pray for the recovery of our Sheikh Abu Musab al-Zarqawi from a wound he sustained for the sake of God,” the al-Qaeda Organisation for Holy War in Iraq said. The claim could not be verified, and some suspected that it was a ruse, but it was the lead story on every Arab satellite news channel last night, where it was implied that the man responsible for hundreds of deaths may himself not have much longer to live.

“You are the beloved of the Mujahidin, and may God heal you and make you steadfast,” the statement said.

Reports late last month, posted by his group at two mosques in Iraq, said that al-Zarqawi had been treated at a hospital in Ramadi, the capital of the restive Anbar province, on April 28. The hospital was raided by US forces, according to the statement, which said that they had missed Iraq’s most-wanted man, who has a $25 million (£14 million) American bounty on his head, the same reward for the killing or capture of Osama bin Laden.

Another unconfirmed report said that he had been wounded in fighting near Qaim, a town close to the border with Syria and the scene of heavy clashes between US Marines and insurgents this month.

A third clue was provided by the capture of al-Zarqawi’s laptop computer by US troops in February. They narrowly missed arresting him at a checkpoint. The information contained on the computer included his medical details, suggesting that he may be ill.

Because he is such a legendary figure, it has never been clear what impact his death or removal from the insurgency in Iraq would have. His group, which has been renamed al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia, has been responsible for some of the most horrific attacks in postwar Iraq.

It carried out the suicide bombing of the UN headquarters in Baghdad, the beheading of Western citizens, the series of assassinations of senior Iraqi officials and the murder of scores of Shia Muslims with the intention of provoking sectarian conflict.

The Americans, who have teams of special forces troops hunting the fugitive Jordanian, treated yesterday’s announcement with caution. Lieutenant-Colonel Steve Boylan, the US military spokesman in Baghdad, said that the announcement could be ploy. “He is still our No 1 target to be captured or killed and, until that happens, the hunt is on.”

All sides in the conflict accept that the insurgency is driven by disaffected members of the Sunni community, including former officials of the ousted Baathist regime, as well as Islamic militants.

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