Iraq's government said today it was closing in on Abu Musab al-Zarqawi but out in the western desert, where he is rumoured to be hiding, Marines said the Jordanian militant remained as elusive as ever.
"There is no pinpoint accuracy as to where he's at, just rumours," said Lieutenant-Colonel Greg Stevens after his US Marines had completed a sweep of palm and orange groves along the Euphrates river in search of insurgents.
"He's a ghost out there. He has nine lives, he's very slippery and very well protected and he certainly isn't stupid."
Iraq's minister of state for national security, Mr Kassim Daoud, said the government was "at the closest point to Zarqawi", the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq and the man who has claimed responsibility for many of the country's worst attacks.
Yesterday the government said it had captured one of Zarqawi's senior aides, Abu Qutaybah, near the Syrian border.
US Marines and Iraqi soldiers launched an offensive last weekend in the villages and towns straddling the Euphrates, which meanders northwest for over 300 km from close to Baghdad to the border with Syria and beyond.
While the Marines insist the operation is more than a simple manhunt, they make no bones about wanting to capture Zarqawi, who has a $25 million US bounty on his head.