Word: zarqawi
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...Inheriting Zarqawi's mantle will be no easy task. His influence extended well beyond the relatively few bloodthirsty fighters he commanded. His willingness to fight on the front lines, his prowess with propaganda tools like Internet videos, and his ability to mobilize massive numbers of suicide bombers had elevated Zarqawi to the level of celebrity. He was successful at directing insurgent attacks against Shi'ites and initiating a controversial plan to sow sectarian strife in Iraq...
...recent days a number of names - actually, noms de guerre - have surfaced as potentially rising stars. (Al-Qaeda in Iraq constantly changes its commanders - and switches their names - for security reasons and to throw the U.S. off track.) Whether any of these personalities will attain Zarqawi's superstar-jihadi status remains to be seen. But TIME spoke with Abu Bara, an insurgent commander in Zarqawi's organization, and came up with these assessments of the most prominent commanders...
...shrine bombing occurred in late February. (It is unclear if he had a hand in that in that incident, which brought Iraq closer to a Shi'a-Sunni civil war than ever before.) Lately, says Abu Bara, Abu Abdul Rahman al Iraqi had been the "right hand" of Zarqawi in Al-Qaeda in Iraq. He has a reputation for being more moderate than Zarqawi, "not a hardliner." And, his relationship with the Arab (non-Iraqi) mujahedeen is very good, says Abu Bara. (The name Abdul Rahman is similar to that of the man the U.S. military describes as Zarqawi...
...Masri, is a name that has been mentioned by the U.S. military and by some other news organizations as a potential successor to Zarqawi. But TIME's sources warn against giving those reports too much credence. The name al Masri, which simply means "the Egyptian," didn't register as of particular importance with Abu Bara...
...Then there is Abu Abdullah Rasheed al Bagdadi. In March 2006, Zarqawi established the Shura Council of Mujahedeen in Iraq to oversee the operations of different groups. The move was in reaction to pressure to put an Iraqi face on the insurgency. ("Al Baghdadi" implies he is from Baghdad.) At the beginning, five groups were represented on the council, including Al Qaeda in Iraq. The number of groups has expanded to nine, says Abu Bara. The groups are all Islamic hardline fundamentalist fighters with names like Brigade of Abu Bakr the Salafi and Battalion of the Foreigners. At the time...