IRAQ - Talabani's View.

During a state visit to Jordan, Iraq's Kurdish President Jalal Talabani told Reuters in Amman last week that Zarqawi was being funded by supporters of the strict Saudi-based Wahhabi sect and "some foreign states". He said he believed Zarqawi had been weakened and isolated and there was no fear of civil war in Iraq.

The veteran Kurdish leader, sworn in last month as the first non-Arab president of an Iraqi republic, who late on May 8 left Amman en route to an Arab-South American summit in Brazil, said Zarqawi's capture could be close and the leadership of the group had been decimated. Reuters quoted him as saying: "I think that...Zarqawi appears isolated and hated by Iraqis and I would not rule out his capture any second, but I cannot guess where or when". Hundreds of members of Zarqawi's group had either been captured or killed by US and Iraqi troops, he said, adding that Baghdad car bombings were a sign of desperation by the Salafi insurgency. "These last acts in which car bombings have escalated are evidence of weakness. The overall number of terror attacks has fallen sharply", Talabani said, in contrast to US military estimates that the guerrillas recently gained ground. "They have been dealt a severe blow and weakened a lot and you can say they have been isolated by people who are angry with their crimes", Talabani said.