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October 10, 2005
Iraq: Abu Musab al-Zarqawi - The Biography of an Islamist Anti-Hero
From today's Independent, an interesting picture is painted of al-Zarqawi, the insurgent from Jordan who has wreaked so much havoc in Iraq. The piece is by Loretta Napoleoni, author of 'Insurgent Iraq: al-Zarqawi and the new generation', published on 13 October by Constable and Robinson.
Al-Zarqawi was born Ahmed Fadel al-Khalayleh in Zarqa, Jordan, where he grew up in poverty. Of Bedouin origin, he rebelled and dropped out of school aged 16 to become a streetwise hoodlum. He was jailed for sexual assault, and in prison he met radicals, becoming upon his release a member of the muhajideen in Afghanistan, though the fighting against the Soviets had ended by the time of his arrival. He became indoctrinated with Salafist ideology in Peshawar, through Abu Muhammed al-Maqdisi, and in 1993 the two men returned to Jordan, to set up a jihadist camp, with the intention of overthrowing the Jordanian government. The attempt failed. Both were sentenced to five years' imprisonment.
Upon his release from jail he returned to Afghanistan, meeting bin Laden in 2000 in Kandahar. Al-Zarqawi declined Osama's invite to join al-Qaeda, and set up a small training camp in Herat, to induct suicide bombers for attacks in their native homelands. After the Taliban's fall he fled to Iraqi Kurdistan, where local informants told the US about him and his jihadists. On 5 February 2003 Colin Powell announced that in Iraq there was "a deadly terrorist network, headed by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, an associate of Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda lieutenants". This move, says Ms Napoleoni, catapulted al-Zarqawi from relative obscurity into the political limelight overnight. The rest, as we know, is now history. In December 2004, Osama granted support to al-Zarqawi, calling him the "emir" of al-Qaeda in Iraq. And since then his notoriety his reached immense proportions. And the US, who helped give him his moments of fame, now has a $25 million reward for him, dead or alive.
It seems that when this book is released, it would be a good subject for a review.
Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at October 10, 2005 6:33 PM
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