10:58pm UK, Thursday June 08, 2006

Tony Blair and US President George Bush have hailed the killing of al Qaeda terror leader Abu Musab al Zarqawi.

180 GRAB vehicle in bomb zarqawi

The scene of the al Zarqawi bombing

Mr Blair described the slaying as a "strike against al Qaeda everywhere".

And Mr Bush called the strike a "severe blow" to the organisation and an opportunity for the new government to "turn the tide" - but he warned that it will not end the violence in Iraq.

Shortly after the blast, three bombs ripped through Baghdad killing at least 22 people.

Al Zarqawi - who had a $25m (£14m) bounty on his head - was killed in an airstrike by US warplanes in Baquba, near Baghdad. F-16 fighters dropped two 500lb bombs on his safehouse, also killing several of his aides.

Al Qaeda in Iraq confirmed the death on an Islamist website and called for insurgents to continue the fight.

"We tell our prince, Sheikh bin Laden, your soldiers in al Qaeda in Iraq will continue along the same path that you set out for Abu Musab al Zarqawi," a statement said.

"The death of our leaders is life for us and only makes us more determined to continue the jihad..."

Al Zarqawi was a key figure in an insurgency that has killed thousands of people. He is personally blamed by the US for the beheading of foreign captives, including Briton Ken Bigley.

Mr Bigley's brother Paul told Sky News that al Zarqawi was "an animal and he deserved what he got and may he rot in hell".

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki confirmed the 39-year-old's death at a press conference, to cheers from his audience. The body was identified formally by fingerprints.

Mr al Maliki said there had been several attempts to kill al Zarqawi in the last 10 days.

Several explanations have been given for how the US tracked the Jordanian.

The strike was the "painstaking, deliberate result" of intelligence over "many weeks", US military spokesman Major General William Caldwell said.

A US military spokesman said that "somebody inside the al Zarqawi network" gave away the whereabouts of No 2 Abdul-Rahman al Iraqi, who was tracked until he led US forces to their prime target.

Sky's Foreign Affairs Editor, Tim Marshall, said al Zarqawi had made the fatal mistake of unintentionally giving away his hiding place in a recent video. Analysts had been able to work out his location by looking at the background of shrub and desert.