During a news conference early today, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki stated that the Jordanian-born militant, chief of the al-Qaeda powerful stronghold in Iraq, was killed late Wednesday night by an American bomber during a raid north of Baghdad. Along with al-Zarqawi, seven other of his aides were also gunned down. After allegedly killing and beheading two American hostages, alongside organizing other terrorist activities like suicide bombings and kidnappings, al-Zarqawi became one of the most infamous personalities related to the al-Qaeda terrorist network, almost as notorious as Osama bin Laden, to whom he pledged allegiance in 2004. In fact, the United States had already placed the same bounty on him, as on Osama bin Laden, 25 million dollars. The international allied forces, chaired by the US, have come very close to capturing al-Zarqawi on many occasions, ever since he started his bloody campaign in 2003. The closest they got to him was in late 2004, when, according to Deputy Interior Ministry Maj. Gen. Hussein Kamal, he was captured by the Iraqi forces around Fallujah but then released because they did not know who he actually was, the Associated Press reports. According to the news agency, al-Zarqawi extended his campaign beyond the borders of Iraq in the past year, claiming he was the mastermind behind the triple suicide bombing in several hotels in Amman on November 9th 2005, which resulted in the death of 60 persons, as well as planning other attacks in Jordan and launching the rocket attack against Israel from Lebanon. P.S: The new has been confirmed by the Iraqi Prime Minister