Olmert congratulates Bush for killing of al-Zarqawi

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert congratulated U.S. President George W. Bush on Thursday for the killing of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, while the Hamas movement that rules the Palestinian Authority decried the death of al-Qaida's leader in Iraq.

Photo: Olmert congratulates Bush for killing of al-Zarqawi

Al-Zarqawi and seven aides were killed on Wednesday in a U.S. airstrike outside Baghdad. U.S. forces occupying Iraq have long sought to kill the master of suicide bombings and beheadings.

Olmert told Bush in a telephone conversation that the U.S. president's decisions on Iraq were exemplary of how world leaders should treat terrorists.

"The prime minister ... emphasized that the determination and the leadership that the president has demonstrated is the only way to beat terror," Olmert's office said in a statement.

The Israeli government has supported the U.S. war in Iraq, and backs U.S. efforts to eradicate world terror.

Hamas, which opposes Western military intervention in Iraq, lamented the death of al-Zarqawi in a statement faxed to news agencies.

Hamas extends its condolences on the death of al-Zarqawi, "who was martyred at the hand of elements of the brutal crusade against the Arab world," the statement said.

Al-Qaida's "holy war" against the West did not die with al-Zarqawi, a Hamas spokesman, Sami Abu Zuhri, said separately.

Al-Zarqawi had spoken out against Israel and in favor of the Palestinian cause. Hamas has killed hundreds of Israelis in suicide bombings, and opposes recognition of Israel.

In the Gaza Strip, Palestinian backers of al-Qaida praised al-Zarqawi.

"Zarqawi, our beloved, your blood shall not have been shed in vain," chanted about 100 demonstrators, some of them shooting in the air and holding posters of the al-Qaida leader, after evening prayers at mosques in Khan Younis, reports AP.

O.Ch.