I don't think they beat him....read what the BBC said
Once the target had been identified, two F-16 jets were dispatched towards the small house in a palm grove 8km (five miles) north of the town of Baquba.
The lead aircraft dropped a 500lb bomb, and then the aircraft returned for another run, dropping a second, similar bomb.
"Following this strike Iraqi security forces, specifically Iraqi police, responded to that location, they were the first ones to arrive on the scene," Gen Caldwell said.
They were followed "very shortly thereafter" by US ground forces.
In his first press briefing on Thursday, Gen Caldwell said US troops found six dead bodies, including the main target.
But on Friday, he said he had since been told that Zarqawi was still alive for some time after the bombing.
"Zarqawi in fact did survive the air strike," he said, and was put on a stretcher by Iraqi police.
When US forces arrived they started examining him.
"He obviously had some kind of visual recognition of who they were because he attempted to roll off the stretcher, as I am told, and get away, realising it was US military," Caldwell said.
He said everybody around resecured him to the stretcher, "but he died immediately thereafter".
He had mumbled, but gave up no information before he died, he said.
On Thursday he said the six bodies included a child, but on Friday he said his information had changed. There were three dead men, three dead women, and no children.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5060468.stm