Word: al-zarqawi
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...Although al-Baghdadi was named al-Qaeda's leader shortly after the death last year of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, little is known about him. There are no verifiable pictures of al-Baghdadi, and the name is made up. Many Iraqis wonder if there's a real identity behind that alias, which may explain Caldwell's phrasing, "If that person even exists...
...that it matters. If al-Baghdadi does exist, and whether or not he is alive, he is a titular leader with no real power. His "promotion" last year was a PR exercise, designed to give al-Qaeda an Iraqi face - under the Jordanian al-Zarqawi, the group was dominated by foreign fighters. The publicity stunt failed, however. Although al-Qaeda nominally proclaims fealty to al-Baghdadi as the ruler of the "Islamic State," it is no secret that the group's real leader is al-Masri, an Egyptian...
...al-Baghdadi and al-Masri have both been killed this week, that would certainly be a big blow to al-Qaeda. But it would not be a coup de grace. Al-Qaeda has shrugged off the death of even more important figures, including al-Zarqawi. At best, there will be a short pause while the group recalibrates itself under a new leader...
...began shifting military resources to Baghdad, sectarian tensions erupted. Late last year the largely Shi'ite government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki choked off supplies of food and fuel to the predominantly Sunni province. Tribal violence, which has long been a source of unrest, intensified as resources dwindled. Sunni insurgents who had gathered in the area under the banner of Abu Mousab al-Zarqawi, killed by U.S. forces near Baqubah last June, launched a campaign to exterminate Shi'ites, who retaliated in kind. As in Baghdad, kidnappings and gruesome murders have become everyday fare...
Then came Samarra. The operation carried the Jordanian-born al-Zarqawi's fingerprints, but Iraqi Sunnis were the ones who would endure the bloody fallout. For many Shi'ites, this was an atrocity too far. They turned to militias such as the Mahdi Army to avenge the desecration of the site, and those militias ran amuck, slaughtering Sunnis and attacking many of their mosques. After the first, furious convulsion of violence, the militias began a more systematic campaign of kidnap and execution. The bodies of their victims, bearing signs of bestial torture, were often tossed into sewers or garbage dumps...