– ABU MUSAB AL-ZARQAWI ׂ ׂ(AHMAD NAZAL KHALAYLEH)

               

Abu Musab Al Zarqawi (Zarqawi in Arabic – from Zarqa) was born in Zarqa, JORDAN on 10/20/1966.  His father was known as a local traditional healer. In the early 80’s Abu Musab Al Zarqawi was sentenced to few years in jail for sexual assault.  When Abu Musab Al Zarqawi was released in 1989 he moved to Afghanistan and met there other future Islamic activist like the JORDANIAN Abu Qatada, Osama Bin Laden and other leaders of Al Qaeda. Because of his independent character Abu Musab al Zarqaw was more a freelancer than an obedient Al Qaeda operative.

In 1990-1992 Abu Musab Al Zarqawi was a freelancer reporter for an Islamic news agency in Afghanistan and he traveled several times to Europe.

On 1992, back in Zarqa, Jordan, Abu Musab Al Zarqawi formed, with friends from Afghanistan, Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi,  Abu Anas al-Shami and Abu Qatada, a spiritual group in Zarqa s’ Mosque, Biat al-Imam,  that turned very soon to an Islamic terror cell. In 1995 Abu Musab Al Zarqawi was arrested after the police found in his car a big mount of explosives and he was sentenced to seven years in jail. Five years later, in 1999, Abu Musab Al Zarqawi was released from jail and fled to Iraqi Kurdistan, near the Iranian border, that was at that time an ungoverned region.

With his followers in the mountains of Kurdistan Abu Musab Al Zarqawi began to plot attacks against the JORDANIAN regime scheduled to the end of the millennium. The JORDANIAN MILLENNIUM attack was foiled and Abu Musab Al Zarqawi and Mullah Krekar were sentenced, in absentia, to death in Jordan.

In Kurdistan with the man that became his spiritual mentor, Mullah Krekar he joined in 12/2001 a local Islamic Kurdish group “Jund al Islam” (Soldiers of Islam) that changed her name to  “Ansar al Islam” (Victors of Islam ).

 Abu Musab Al Zarqawi began to build a network of supporters all over Europe and the Arab countri similar to Al Qaeda, that tried to carry out dozens of terror attacks all over Europe and the Middle East, many of them by using chemical components. Ansar al Islam is directly connected to the Double Istanbul attack, in Turkey on 11/15/2003 and 11/25/2003, to the Madrid Trains Bombing on 03/11/2004 and to a series of attacks in Jordan and Egypt. Because of Abu Musab Al Zarqawi s’ involvement in the murder of Laurence Foley in Amman, JORDAN on 10/28/2002, he was sentenced .the second time, to death in absentia in JORDAN

Shortly after the USA invasion and occupation of Iraq on 04/2003 Abu Musab Al Zarqawi got his golden opportunity to fight the Jihad in his own way on his own territory. Instead of fighting directly the Americans he adopted an indirect approach of provoking complete anarchy and civil war all over Iraq so no political or economical progress can be made related to USA presence in Iraq. He began with bloody attacks on the Shiites killing thousands and turned the war in Iraq also to a civilian war between Sunnites and Shiites. Abu Musab Al Zarqawi also changed the name of his organization from “Ansar al Islam” to ” Ansar al Sunna “(Victors of Sunna). While the Americans tried to impose on the Iraqi people an “unnatural regime”- a Western Democracy – Abu Musab Al Zarqawi used the sectarian tensions, fears and suspicions, natural to Iraq, to fight successfully the USA. The USA announced a 25 million $ reward on his head live or dead.

On 01/22/2004 a former aide to the senior Al Qaeda operative Khalid Shaik Mohammed, Hassan Ghul was captured on the border between Turkey and Iraqi Kurdistan with a letter from Ayman Al Zawahiri to Abu Musab Al Zarqawi. The letter revealed the hatred of Abu Musab Al Zarqawi not only to the USA but to the Shiites as well. The letter also revealed that  Abu Musab Al Zarqawi looked for recognition to his strategy in Iraq from Al Qaeda and voiced sharp criticism of the acting leader of Al Qaeda for killing so many Muslims, although they are Shiites, rather then killing Americans. Eventually, after proving himself very efficient in the war in Iraq and after declaring loyalty to Al Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden he was granted on 10/17/2004 the title “The Supreme Commissioner of Al Qaeda in Southern Iraq” (Southern Iraq is mainly Shiite) – in Arabic : “Amir Al Qaeda fil Gunub Iraq” .

* Al Qaeda hit USA but Ansar al Islam, led by Abu Musab  Al Zarqawi, brought USA to the verge of humiliating defeat in Iraq with terrible consequences to the Middle East, USA and the rest of the world. It is fair to say that he was, so far, the most dangerous activist in the Global Jihad. 

 * Related topics –  

02/2006 -AL-ASKARIYA BOMBING
03/2003 -ZARQAWI’S JORDANIAN NETWORKS
PROFILE -ABDUL HADI AL-IRAQI

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