ISTANBUL - Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister Barham Saleh on Thursday hailed as an "important victory" the killing of the Al-Qaeda chief in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, but underlined that his country must not ease off efforts to eliminate terrorist threats.
"Zarqawi represents the evil of terrorism and he has been responsible for death and mayhem against the people of Iraq. Having him killed, we have achieved an important victory," Saleh told reporters here on the sidelines of the Turkish-Arabic Economic Forum.
"We cannot be complacent about the rest of the Zarqawi group. We still have to be determined to root them out," he added.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki announced earlier Thursday in Baghdad that Zarqawi "has been eliminated".
06/08/2006 08:32 GMT