Washington, DC, Jun. 3 (UPI) — Iraqi Sunni Sheik Ammar Abdel Rahim Nasir told the Saudi newspaper Al-Medina that al-Qaida’s leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, died May 27 and has been buried in Fallujah’s cemetery. Nasir claims recent firefights in Fallujah involved militants protecting Zarqawi’s grave from U.S. soldiers patrolling the area. Nasir said Zarqawi was taken to Fallujah after being injured in the city of Ramadi about three weeks ago. Two doctors working on Zarqawi had stopped a serious hemorrhage in his intestines, but his condition worsened and he died May 27. Nasir said Zarqawi’s will ordered that no funeral should be held and the right to announce his death should be left to Osama bin Laden and the al-Qaida leadership in Afghanistan. Two days ago an audio clip attributed to Zarqawi was posted on the Internet assuring his followers that he had only been lightly injured. U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld subsequently warned countries neighboring Iraq not to give medical assistance to Zarqawi, saying, “Were a neighboring country to take him in and provide medical assistance or haven for him, they obviously would be associating themselves with a major linkage in the al-Qaida network, and a person who has a great deal of blood on his hands. And that’s something that people would want to take note of.”