NYC Letter: Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, DEAD

ABU MUSAB AL-ZARQAWI
We Are Already Forgetting His Name

IRAQ TERRORIST LEADER ZARQAWI KILLED

June 8, 2006 (Guardian) - United States coalition forces have killed the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, it was announced this morning.

The Iraqi prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, confirmed on state television that Iraq's most-wanted man was killed during an air attack on a house in Baghdad.

Jordanian-born Zarqawi is blamed for the beheading of foreign captives, including the British man Ken Bigley, and suicide bombings that have maimed and killed hundreds in Iraq.

Even now Mr. Zarqawi is being disabused of his expectations in the afterlife.

UPDATE: The Guardian managed to get the headline right. Now look at this pathetic Steven Jukes beauty from the Washington Post:

IRAQ INSURGENT LEADER AL-ZARQAWI KILLED
Washington Post

UPDATE: Reuters is fast out of the box with its "so what" analysis. Must be read to be believed.

ZARQAWI LEAVES GAP BUT INSURGENCY WILL OUTLIVE HIM
By Mark Trevelyan, Security Correspondent
[Over-the-horizon analysis from Reuters]

BERLIN, June 8 (Reuters) - The killing of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi removes the man who took Iraq's insurgency to new heights of savagery but it also creates a martyr whose inspiration will mobilise new recruits.

But, then why even bother killing terrorists?

Arab and Western security analysts were agreed on Thursday that Zarqawi's death in a U.S. air raid would not end the insurgency, even if it represents a rare triumph in Iraq for the Bush administration.

"There will be people that will be mobilised to join the caravan of martyrs, to emulate his example and to honour him," said Magnus Ranstorp, an al Qaeda expert at the Swedish National Defence College.

All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up.

But it does eliminate a supremely ruthless commander pursuing an explicit strategy of fomenting strife between Sunnis and majority Shias that has pushed the country to the brink of civil war.

Zarqawi became the chief symbol of the insurgency as he personally beheaded foreign hostages, directed some of the deadliest bombings against Iraqi and coalition forces and propagated his own legend with skilled use of the Internet.

Yes, well, Mr. Zarqawi was a little more than a symbol for Paul Johnson, Jr. and Nicolas Berg and Kim Sun-il and Jack Hensley and Eugene Armstrong and Ken Bigley and others. America of course is to blame in ways big and small -- in all ways -- for Mr. Zarqawi's transformation from an on-again-off-again local assassin to a full-time anywhere terrorist.

The United States helped to build up Zarqawi's aura, even before the invasion of Iraq, when Secretary of State Colin Powell told the United Nations in 2003 he was part of a "sinister nexus" between Iraq and Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda.

Before reading further you will want to arm yourself with a clutch of Kleenex. Who will not be moved to tears and hot rivelets of snot after reading the below tribute to Mr. Zarqawi, his enterprising rise from humble beginnings in the squalor and thugdom of Jordan to the big-time squalor and thugdom of al-Qaeda?

"The poster boy who united terrorism with Iraq has gone," said Ranstorp. "Bin Laden propelled him, he propelled himself and the United States helped him in this endeavour. He's now a martyr, he was always going to be a martyr, he was larger than life."

Reuters continues its tribute to Mr. Zarqawi with this moving report:

RULING PALESTINIAN HAMAS GROUP MOURNS ZARQAWI

GAZA (Reuters) - The ruling Palestinian faction Hamas on Thursday deplored the killing by U.S. warplanes of the al Qaeda leader in Iraq Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, describing him as a casualty of a crusade against Arabs and Muslims.

[In] a statement faxed to Reuters after Zarqawi was killed in a U.S. air strike north of Baghdad on Wednesday, Hamas said it mourned the Jordanian-born insurgent as a "martyr of the (Muslim Arab) nation".

"With hearts full of faith, Hamas commends brother-fighter Abu Musab ... who was martyred at the hands of the savage crusade campaign which targets the Arab homeland, starting in Iraq," the statement said.

Posted by Damian at June 8, 2006 11:50 AM