Word: zarqawi
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...Bakr and waved him in. As he sat on a rug on the floor of the living room, he told himself this was clearly the hideout of an important figure. Then a man walked in from another room, greeting him in a quiet voice. It was Abu Mousab al-Zarqawi, al-Qaeda's leader in Iraq...
...battles against U.S. troops, says he was instantly awestruck. "I could not feel my tongue, my hands, my legs ... I could not move," he says, his eyes widening at the very memory. "For a few moments I could not even think. My mind went completely blank." Bakr says al-Zarqawi led him into another room, with prayer mats and copies of the Koran. "Come, let us pray," al-Zarqawi said. Bakr says they prayed for about three hours, with al-Zarqawi reciting from memory several long surahs, or chapters from the Koran, in a whisper. From time to time...
Bakr spoke about his first meeting--and many others over several months--with al-Zarqawi in a recent interview with TIME in Baghdad. He admitted he was using a pseudonym and asked that some details of his experiences be omitted in order to avoid al-Zarqawi's wrath. The anecdotes and other details in his account were verified by several sources, including a second al-Qaeda fighter who has spent some time close to al-Zarqawi, commanders of two Iraqi insurgent groups who have met the Jordanian-born terrorist, U.S. counterterrorism officials-- who confirmed some aspects and cast doubt...
...Huthaifa Azzam, a Jordan-based Palestinian Islamist and son of Osama bin Laden's erstwhile mentor in Afghanistan, Abdullah Azzam, who claims to be well-connected in Iraqi insurgent circles, said last month that Zarqawi had made "many political mistakes" and was now being confined to a military role. Others suspected that lowering his profile was a strategy to put an Iraqi face on even the Islamist element of the insurgency, recognizing that a good portion of the Sunni population was alienated by many of Zarqawi's tactics. Either way, the problem facing the likes of Zarqawi is plain...
...reported rift between Zarqawi and local nationalists and Islamists is happening in the safe houses and secret communication channels of the Iraqi insurgency, the rift between al-Qaeda and Hamas has become a matter of public record. It is not yet clear who was responsible for Monday's triple bombing in Dahab, but the Hamas-led Palestinian government instantly condemned "this criminal act which flouts our religion, shakes Palestinian national security and works against Arab interests". Strong stuff, particularly from a government that only last week had labeled a Tel Aviv suicide bombing by Islamic Jihad a "legitimate...