Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the al-Qaeda terrorist behind some of the worst atrocities of the Iraqi insurgency, briefly survived the American air raid that flattened his safe house north of Baghdad, US forces said today.

In the most detailed account yet of the operation that killed Iraq's most wanted man, Major-General Bill Caldwell, the spokesman for US forces in Baghdad, said that al-Zarqawi had even tried to get away when US forces reached him. But he died minutes later of his injuries.

The al-Qaeda leader was with five other people, including three women, in the house near Baquba, 40 miles north of the capital, when American F-16s hit it with two 500lb bombs on Wednesday evening. The five others all died in the blast, which destroyed neighbouring buildings.

"We were not aware yesterday that in fact, Zarqawi was alive when US forces arrived on the site," Major-General Caldwell said.

He said that the first forces to reach the scene after the air strike were Iraqi police, who found al-Zarqawi and put him on a stretcher. US ground forces then arrived and identified the terror chief, who died shortly afterwards from the wounds he suffered in the explosion.

"He was conscious initially, according to the US forces that physically saw him. He obviously had some kind of visual recognition of who they were because he attempted to roll off the stretcher, as I am told, and get away, realizing it was US military," Major-General Caldwell said.

"He mumbled something but it was indistinguishable and it was very short."

Apart from being the formal leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, al-Zarqawi was the country's most prolific and brutal terrorist, responsible for dozens of suicide attacks and execution-style mass killings that pushed Iraq to the brink of civil war.

He is thought personally to have beheaded at least three Western hostages, including Kenneth Bigley, the Liverpool engineer abducted in September 2004 and murdered three weeks later after being made to beg for his life on video.

The death of the terrorist has given a boost to Iraq's new coalition government of national unity and raised some hope that Iraq's Sunni Muslim minority, most heavily involved in the anti-US insurgency, can be brought back into the political process.

But no-one expects al-Qaeda or its affiliated insurgent groups to give up the fight just because their leader and figurehead is dead. Fearing reprisals, Nouri al-Maliki, the Prime Minister, imposed a driving ban in Baghdad and in Diyala province to head off revenge attacks.

The midday ban in Baghdad lasted four hours, covering the start of Friday prayers, while all traffic was banned in Diyala, which includes Baquba, from 8pm to 6am for three days starting today. A government official said the ban was an attempt to protect mosques and prayers from terrorist attacks.

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