CAIRO, June 8: The death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in Iraq showed deep splits on Thursday between Arabs who credit him for the Iraqi resistance to occupation and those who say Al Qaeda gives Muslims a bad name.

But few ordinary Arabs or analysts expected that the killing of the Jordanian-born militant would have much effect in reducing the level of violence in Iraq.

Some Arab citizens hailed Zarqawi as a hero for his role in the resistance but others welcomed his death as a form of justice for the civilians killed in bombings by his group, which calls itself Al Qaeda in Iraq.

Another view was that the United States, anxious to find a scapegoat for its troubles in Iraq, deliberately demonised him and exaggerated his significance as a militant leader.

“He died for the sake of God. After giving so much and having such incredible courage, Abu Musab the lion left us after humiliating the Americans. Pray for his soul,” Khaled al-Saleh wrote on the Web site Montada.

“Thank God this wayward infidel is dead,” wrote a chatter identified as Azizi on another Web site. “All true believers have been relieved of his evil.”

Abdullah, a 29-year-old Saudi secretary, put the third point of view: “I consider Zarqawi as nothing more than propaganda for the Americans. He’s just a name, a rumour so that they have somebody to blame everything on.”

Arab analysts were also sceptical about some of the high hopes expressed by western leaders, including US President George Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Mr Bush said the killing of Zarqawi was a severe blow to al Qaeda and offered a chance for the Iraqi government to “turn the tide” in the struggle against the insurgency.

Mustafa Alani of the Gulf Research Centre in Dubai said: “Maybe the bloodshed will decrease in Iraq now. But the problem is that whenever an extremist leader dies, he is replaced by a more radical leader. Zarqawi is a central figure but I believe that the organisation will survive.”—Reuters