He understood and harnessed the power of the internet. He recruited hundreds of suicide bombers, had brilliant intelligence and absolutely first-class bomb makers. He ran his operation on an industrial scale.
However, in recent months he became too extreme even for his allies. The success of his destructive campaign provoked concern and envy and turned all but the most hardline zealots against him.
Iraqis suffered most from his relentless assault, which included assassinations, beheadings and suicide bombings delivered on the streets of Baghdad.
The al-Qaeda leadership also become alarmed by the impact that his brutal methods was having on support in the Muslim World. Ayman al-Zawahiri, the al-Qaeda number two, wrote to al-Zarqawi last year urging him to stop the practice of beheading victims and posting the footage on the internet.
Arguably the most disastrous operation happened last November when three suicide bombers acting on al-Zarqawi’s orders killed 60 people in hotels in Amman. The victims included Palestinians attending a wedding celebration.
Most of the militias in Iraq are fighting for political ends, they have an agenda and their aim is to secure some kind of deal giving them power in Baghdad. Zarqawi wanted to provoke sectarian war and to establish a Sunni caliphate, which would have meant rejecting 80 per cent of Iraq's population as collaborators and heretics.
It was an impossible aim but he didn't care, seeing Iraq as a step on the way to achieving this ambition.
Fellow Sunni Muslims became increasingly alarmed by his nihilist ideology and the two sides clashed openly last year when Sunnis decided to participate in the general election against al-Zarqawi’s wishes.
Well, zarqawi has his reward now: 72 'janet reno' lesbians with a hillary demeanor and hell's pitch fork to vex him where the sun never shines for all eternity. Ka-boom, al.
This abu zawahri putz is next on the worm food list.
And this just in: osama bin laden is still dead. Details at eleven.
And why didn't I think of this? Here is a capital idea.
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Iraq's prime minister imposed a daytime driving ban in Baghdad and in the province where Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed by American bombs, fearing insurgents will seek to avenge the death of the al-Qaida in Iraq leader.
As Iraqi and U.S. leaders cautioned that al-Zarqawi's death was not likely to end the bloodshed in Iraq, an American general said another foreign-born militant was already poised to take over the terror network's operations.
