Word: al-zarqawi
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That is not true. The group doing the most spectacular bombings in Iraq was named al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia by its founder, Abu Mousab al-Zarqawi, now deceased, in an attempt to aggrandize his reputation in jihadi-world. It is a sliver group, representing no more than 5% of the Sunni insurgency. It shares a philosophy, but not much else, with the real al-Qaeda, which operates out of Pakistan. In fact, al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia has been criticized in the past by the operational director of the real al-Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahiri, for its wanton carnage directed...
...second day of Phantom Thunder, I flew into Baqubah with Lieut. General Ray Odierno - a massive man, decidedly more blood-and-guts than Petraeus - to check the progress of what was supposed to be the most intense, and symbolic, battle of the offensive. In 2006 al-Qaeda's leader Abu Mousab al-Zarqawi proclaimed Baqubah the capital of the new Islamic State of Iraq. About 500 al-Qaeda fighters were said to be in the city, hunkered down, ready for a fight...
...Spray-painted on the stairwell of the run-down apartment block where the Mahmoud family lives are slogans reading "God bless Osama bin Laden", "God bless Abu Musab al-Zarqawi." "He was born naturally religious," said Riad Mahmoud, Bilal's father. "He didn't take part in any fighting. He has been with us since it began last week...
...named Shaker al-Absi broke away from Fatah al-Intifada and called his new faction Fatah al-Islam. This time, the split appeared to be rooted in the growth of al-Qaeda and the terrorism unleashed after the U.S. invasion of Iraq, another indication of extremism's viral spread since Sept. 11, 2001. The original Fatah always espoused a secular Palestinian state, as did Fatah al-Intifada. But Fatah al-Islam not only preaches a Salafist brand of Islam, but appears to have at least logistical links with al-Qaeda. In 2004, a Jordanian court convicted al-Absi and nine...
...Fatah al-Islam is headed by Shaker al-Absi, a veteran Palestinian guerrilla fighter who is thought to have fought American forces in Iraq and was linked to Abu Mousab al-Zarqawi, the head of al-Qaeda in Iraq who was killed a year ago. In 2004, al-Absi was sentenced to death in absentia by a Jordanian court for the 2002 murder of U.S. diplomat Laurence Foley in Amman. His group - thought to comprise 200-500 fighters drawn from several Arab countries - has recently begun establishing a presence in other refugee camps in Beirut and south Lebanon. Islamist sources...