Iraq’s government said on Saturday it was closing in on Abu Musab al-Zarqawi but out in the western desert, where he is rumored 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 rumors,” said Lieutenant-Colonel Greg Stevens after his U.S. 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, Kassim Daoud, said on Saturday 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. Full Story