The United States on Monday denied a report that the most wanted terror suspect in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, had been captured.
"That is false," said an aide to Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmit, the deputy chief of operations. "I can tell you that Zarqawi has not been arrested. We just checked with the unit."
Al-Zarqawi was rumored to have been picked up in Hillah, a predominantly Shiite city 60 miles south of Baghdad, the scene of a bloody car bombing Saturday night that killed about 20 people.
The Jordanian-born Zarqawi is accused of masterminding a string of suicide bombings and of the execution of an American and a South Korean hostage.
The report first surfaced on Iraqi TV, only hours after the United States handed over power to an Iraqi transition government, two days ahead of schedule.