BAGHDAD, July 18: Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian extremist accused of masterminding the Iraqi insurgency, is proving just as elusive as his suspected ally, Osama bin Laden.
Zarqawi, who heads a militant faction named Tawhid wal Jihad (Unification and Holy War), has a 25 million dollar bounty on his head, the same offered for the capture of the Al Qaeda leader.
The Jordanian also faces a death sentence at home, where the state security court condemned him and seven others to death in April for the 2002 killing of a US diplomat in Amman.
White House officials repeatedly cited Zarqawi as a missing link between Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda in the buildup to the March 2003 invasion. The US-led coalition blames Zarqawi for at least 25 attacks in Iraq, including the March 2 coordinated suicide bombings of Karbala and Baghdad that killed about 170 people, the bloodiest day of the insurgency to date, and the beheading of US businessman Nicholas Berg.
But US military intelligence officers say blame is hard to assess in the context of multiple forces with a variety of agendas. Indeed, Zarqawi has death threats hanging over him from local militant groups, one accusing him of "treachery" and allegiance to Saddam, another ordering him and his supporters to leave Iraq immediately.
Zarqawi's Tawhid wal Jihad has claimed responsibility for two car bombings and the beheading of a South Korean hostage in June. Most recently it said it carried out a car bomb attack targeting Justice Minister Malek Dohan al-Hasan's motorcade on Saturday.
A high-ranking US military officer says Zarqawi commands 500 to 1,000 men, swelled in recent months by Iraqi fundamentalists. But the official said on condition of anonymity that they are not related to a separate revolt of some 5,000 hardcore Sunni Muslim insurgents motivated by communal aspirations and the politics of Saddam's Baath party.
Contrary to claims by the Bush administration, the fugitive and Saddam's followers have probably never mixed, the official said. A security analyst with the International Crisis Group, Robin Bhatty, said Zarqawi allowed the coalition to claim a foreign hand in the insurgency.
"Frankly, the coalition may generally believe he is responsible for these high-profile attacks... (but) Zarqawi is a great way of pointing the finger at a foreign terrorist threat," she said. "Zarqawi is an identifiable target."
A senior intelligence officer said in May that while Zarqawi does not drive the insurgency, his access to fighters and weapons are what make him dangerous. Colonel Buck Connor, the senior commander in the flash point western city of Ramadi, said: "Zarqawi uses these groups.
He arranges money for heavy weaponry, smuggles people. He arranges financing ... It's more like a loose spider web." Captain Ben Connable, the intelligence deputy for the US 1st Marine Division, said at the height of the deadly fighting in Fallujah in April that the ringleaders in the region were veterans of Saddam's security services.
Zarqawi is said to have recruited former fighters of the Ansar al-Islam, a militant group formerly based in the remote mountains on the Iranian border which was targeted by US air strikes during last year's invasion.
The high-ranking US officer made clear that the military was nowhere near catching Zarqawi. "He can move relatively free. ... He is a guy who is very cautious. He's got his operational security."
An audio tape posted on a website in April quoted Zarqawi as admitting he was behind a foiled plot to destroy the Jordanian intelligence headquarters. General John Abizaid, head of the US Central Command in Iraq, said of Zarqawi: "He can move around. He can strike at will."
An air strike on Fallujah on Sunday targeted a den of about 25 people with suspected links to Zarqawi, the US military said. At least 11 people were killed. Zarqawi spent around eight years in jail in Jordan before being released under a royal amnesty in 1999. He had been sentenced to 15 years of hard labour in a case involving membership of an Islamist group. -AFP
