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A Successor for al-Zarqawi

Even before Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s death, something of a power struggle had begun in the al-Qaeda leadership in Iraq. Now the tussle has taken on an urgency, at the same time giving Osama bin Laden the opportunity to reimpose his authority on the insurgency, which was spinning out of his control under the ruthlessly stubborn Zarqawi. Four names have been circulated in the Arabic press as possible successors to the “Prince of al-Qaeda”: Iraq-based Egyptian terrorist Abu Ayyub al-Masri, an Iraqi named Abu Aseel, a Syrian named Abu al-Ghadia, and the less extremist Abdul-Rahman al-Iraqi. If Iraqi succeeds as the new leader, look for the group to move away from targeting civilians as freely and away from publicized beheadings. He would also avoid killing Shi’ites to foment civil war. The new leader, or council if one leader cannot be agreed upon, will be more clearly under bin Laden’s control. Bin Laden will be more “civilized” in handling al-Qaeda in Iraq than Zarqawi. That’s how bad Zarqawi had become.