What papers are saying about the death of al-Qaeda leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in US air strikes on Iraq:

  • With respect to America’s global war on terror, the assassination of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi
    … is even more significant than the assassination of Osama bin
    Laden would be. Zarqawi is the terrorist responsible for the greatest
    number of casualties in recent years, and therefore, his liquidation
    has operational significance. Bin Laden’s liquidation would have only
    moral significance. – Yossi Melman, Ha’aretz

  • The details of what is perhaps the coalition’s greatest tactical
    success of the war were largely omitted or conspicuously avoided. The
    certainty exuded by [Major] General Caldwell – and the success of the air
    strike – points to a deep penetration into whatever security measures
    Abu Musab al-Zarqawi had relied on to stay alive. – Dan Murphy and Mark Sappenfield, The Christian Science Monitor

  • Al-Qaeda in Iraq confirmed al-Zarqawi’s death and
    vowed to continue its “holy war,” according to a statement posted on a Web
    site. “We want to give you the joyous news of the martyrdom
    of the mujahed shaikh Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. “The death of our leaders is life for us. It will only
    increase our persistence in continuing holy war so that the word of God will
    be supreme.” – Al-Jazeerah

  • Now that Abu Musab
    al-Zarqawi is dead, there seems little certainty who will succeed the brutal
    killer … An
    American general thinks it will be
    Egyptian-born,
    Afghanistan-trained Abu
    al-Masri, whose name is an obvious alias, meaning “father of the Egyptian.” –
    Hamza Hendawi, The
    Seattle Post Intelligencer

  • Zarqawi was a
    notoriously enigmatic figure – a man who was everywhere yet nowhere
    … Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, barely forty and barely literate, a Bedouin
    from
    the Bani Hassan tribe, was until recently almost unknown outside his
    native Jordan. Then, on February 5, 2003, Secretary of State Colin
    Powell catapulted him onto the world stage. In his address to the
    United Nations making the case for war in Iraq, Powell identified
    al-Zarqawi – mistakenly, as it turned out – as the crucial link
    between
    al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein’s regime. – Mary Anne Weaver, The Atlantic Online

What blogs are saying:

  • Prime Minister Announces the Death of Zarqawi!!! 999 left to go, at
    least it’s a beginning, I have never been more happy than when they
    caught the Rat in the hole! – Where Date Palms Grow
  • Washington’s number one terror bogeyman
    was reportedly killed again in Iraq last night … Amazingly, Zarqawi
    was said to be still clinging to life even after 1,000 pounds of bombs
    rained down upon him. Even more amazingly, he had grown back the leg he
    lost years ago. Some “terror website” nobody’s ever heard of
    “confirmed” the mysterious Zarqawi’s death… To hear pro-Jihadi
    pundits like Abdelbari Atwan, the editor of al Quds
    al Arabi     speaking on Al Jazeera tell it, the “death of Zarqawi won’t weaken Al Qaeda but will actually unify the organisation
    … Jihadists will increase their operations in Iraq. For the more the
    organisation is repressed the more it will produce Jihadists.” – Sploid
  • Things might not improve or change instantly, but this will definitely
    have a positive effect on Iraqis. It will bring back a long lost
    confidence; not in the government but in themselves and the future. The
    tables are turning at last. – Madly in Love With Iraq
  • Zarqawi and his operatives added to this
    mess. Perhaps they meant to fight the occupation, but their fight did
    not discriminate between Iraqi and non-Iraqi, occupier and occupied.
    Their roadside bombs, car bombs, mortars, etc killed more Iraqis than
    they did Americans. Their kidnappings and public beheadings hurt the
    image of Islam in the West. I can safely say that most Iraqis
    are happy, even ecstatic, with this news, but sceptical. – Thoughts from Baghdad
  • The first thing that occurred to me at hearing the news was “A much
    needed victory, huh?” It is indeed a much needed victory for a Prime
    Minister whose status wasn’t as he would have liked it to be. Also a
    much more needed victory for the Coalition Forces that haven’t been
    achieving much since capturing Saddam Hussein which I believe was act
    IV, iv. …to all
    governments he’s been an ideal scapegoat when it comes to justifying
    failures. But the thing is, if he’s for real and has got followers,
    shouldn’t we be more afraid now? – Thought Riot
  • Yes, it’s absolutely fantastic that we’ve scored both a major symbolic and moral victory by killing Zarqawi
    (please note that any dripping sarcasm you may infer is yours and yours
    alone – I mean this in all sincerity). However, amidst all the think
    pieces and so on about “who he was” and “what does it all mean” let’s
    not forget that we could have prevented four years of his activity. – Are You Effin’ Kidding Me?
  • Perhaps the biggest reason to rejoice at (Zarqawi’s) demise is not that he
    represented the core of the Sunni insurgency, but that his strategy of
    fomenting sectarian mayhem helped unleash the most destructive force in
    the nascent state. Maybe his removal will help abate that force. Or
    maybe it now has a momentum all its own. We’ll see. – The Daily Dish
  • Also, this indicates that
    bringing the Sunnis into the government seems to has worked. One of the gambles
    of bringing the Sunnis in was to see if they could start ramping down the
    violence through tips, turn-ins and general cooperation. That has always been
    the central question: Do the Sunnis in government have control over their
    factions in the insurgency? I’ve argued here that they don’t, but if today’s
    news is true, I may very well need to admit I was wrong on that. Gut feeling is
    that I was. – Back to Iraq


  • – Freedom For Egyptians