For Al-Zarqawi, myth was bigger than the man

DUBAI - Taunting President Bush during the videotaped killing of a sobbing, blindfolded U.S. hostage, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi boasted that the al-Qaida fighters he commanded “love death just like you love life.”

“Killing for the sake of God is their best wish,” the insurgent leader said, drawing a knife to hack off the head of his kneeling victim. “Getting to your soldiers and allies are their happiest moments, and cutting the heads of the criminal infidels is implementing the orders of our Lord.”

By the time he was killed Wednesday in a U.S. airstrike, al-Zarqawi was more powerful as a myth than as a man.

The killings he masterminded were carefully calibrated to have the maximum psychological effect and feed his legend.

His repertoire of violence was a guerrilla version of the “shock and awe” tactics of his American foes. Suicide bombings were planned with great precision but rarely aimed at targets of military value — their symbolic effect was more important.

The killing of hostages was also choreographed for maximum shock value and followed a ritual that became grimly familiar.

Mirror images
Victims were dressed in orange clothes to mirror the treatment of prisoners in Guantanamo Bay, and were filmed weeping and pleading for their lives, sometimes caged. Their decapitation — often at the hands of al-Zarqawi himself — was swiftly distributed over the Internet.

With his horror videos — including the beheading of American hostage Nicholas Berg — the Jordanian-born militant seemed to revel in taunting those seeking to catch or eradicate him. His bloodshed made the U.S.-led war on terrorism look impotent to some extent, an impression that the airstrike that killed him helped to dispel.

“It indicates that the intelligence services and police are now more capable of infiltrating the terror groups,” said Italian expert Stefano Silvestri, president of the Institute of International Affairs in Rome.

Reputation for brutality
Al-Zarqawi’s reputation for personal savagery stood out even in a country where brutal killings have become routine, and sparked reports that al-Qaida elder statesmen Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahri were worried his homicidal zeal would undermine support for their militant network.

Although bin Laden anointed al-Zarqawi as prince of al-Qaida in Iraq, the two men were widely seen to be rivals, with al-Zarqawi keen to outshine bin Laden’s fame and notoriety.

MORE ON AL-ZARQAWI Al-Qaida in Iraq’s al-Zarqawi killed Bush: Al-Zarqawi death a ‘severe blow’ Victim’s brother: ‘Rot in hell’ Relatives say al-Zarqawi was a martyr Blog: Joy in the Green Zone Myth bigger than the man? Newsweek: Impact of death unclear

As a foreign militant whose attacks killed far more Iraqi civilians than foreign troops, al-Zarqawi was despised even by many Iraqi insurgents fighting U.S. forces, and at times the hatred spiraled into fierce battles between insurgent groups.

Some of his methods and efforts to ignite a civil war between Sunnis and Iraq’s majority Shiites also made al-Zarqawi a divisive figure among Iraqi insurgent groups, and experts say his death could give them an opportunity to close ranks.

Al-Qaida in Iraq described Al-Zarqawi as a martyr. But Western experts said that because he made his name through brutality, rather than as an ideologist or as thinker, al-Zarqawi was not likely to become a widely respected and inspirational figure for Islamic militants.

“He was a particularly ruthless and malignant force, responsible for the death of hundreds of Iraqi civilians,” said Paul Wilkinson of the Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland.

“He’s killed so many of his fellow Muslims that I think there will be a general sigh of relief in the Middle East.”

MORE FROM MIDEAST & N. AFRICA

Mideast & N. Africa Section Front

Iraq mission is critical, Gates tells U.S. troops CIA ends secret Blackwater missile contract Amnesty blasts Iraq over treatment of Iran exiles Palestinians fake cancer to flee blockaded Gaza Mideast & N. Africa Section Front   Add Mideast & N. Africa headlines to your news reader: