Saturday, Sep 25, 2004

The gruesomebeheading of two American hostages this week and the emotional campaign by relatives of Kenneth Bigley, the British detainee, for his release have cemented the image of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi as the chief threat to security in Iraq. The presumed head of Tawhid wal Jihad (Unity and Jihad), the group that claimed responsibility for this week's atrocities, has been blamed for horrific acts from the videotaped decapitation of American businessman Nicholas Berg to the ruthless killing of Shia pilgrims.

Now, efforts by US officials to frequently link Mr Zarqawi and al-Qaeda's global network reflect efforts to portray him as the new face of international terrorism, second only to Osama bin Laden. A Saudi newspaper this week even claimed he was planning a September 11-style attack in the US or Europe. Yet, apart from reports that he once lived in an al-Qaeda camp in Afghanistan, no concrete evidence to prove Mr Zarqawi's involvement with al-Qaeda - or that is even alive - has emerged.

Jordanian-born Mr Zarqawi and his group have undoubtedly committed atrocities. But experts say their powers are exaggerated and a Zarqawi myth is being deliberately created. Tawhid wal Jihad is just one of several militant groups to have sprung up in occupied Iraq. Some of its members, presumed to come from abroad, may be linked to al-Qaeda, and the young zealots who carry the group's black banner may regard Mr Zarqawi as a figurehead. Yet there is no firm evidence to support US claims that they take orders from Mr Zarqawi.

US officials, by their own admission, say there may be fewer than 1,000 foreign fighters in Iraq. In fact the insurgency is mostly waged by a collection of Iraqi groups, including former Ba'athists and many Islamists. But focusing on Mr Zarqawi and his group has allowed Washington and the interim Iraqi government to put a non-Iraqi face on a complex insurgency and to perpetuate the claims of a link between pre-war Iraq and al-Qaeda.

Whereas Mr bin Laden's path to notoriety was well documented, Mr Zarqawi remains a shadowy figure. Indeed, in March a letter circulated in the Sunni stronghold of Falluja, headquarters of Tawhid wal Jihad, claimed he had been killed in a US raid last year. his name first came to international attention in the run-up to the US invasion of Iraq, when American officials highlighted his alleged presence as proof of links between al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein's regime. Iraq was accused of harbouring a "very senior al-Qaeda leader" when Mr Zarqawi spent time in Baghdad recovering from injuries sustained in Afghanistan.

George W. Bush underlined the point in June this year when he described Mr Zarqawi as "the best evidence of a connection to al-Qaeda" and its affiliates in Iraq. Since then, the US has raised the reward for Mr Zarqawi's capture to Dollars 25m.

None of Tawhid wal Jihad's statements, however, have carried Mr Zarqawi's name, according to Mustafa Alani, a Gulf-based terrorism expert. Although he was identified by an Islamist website last May as the man who beheaded Mr Berg, doubts remain. Nor are there any recorded meetings with the Jordanian since he left his homeland in 1999. "Zarqawi might be someone invented by politicians and the security services to point the finger of blame at," says Mr Alani.

Details about Mr Zarqawi's life are sketchy. He was born Ahmed Fadhil al-Khalayleh in 1966 in the impoverished Jordanian town of Zarqa, where he became a minor civil servant. He belongs to the Bani Hassan tribe, many of whose members work in Jordan's security services and whose territory extends into Iraq.

Some reports, based on interviews with neighbours, suggest he was an ill-disciplined youth who was regularly in trouble with the police for alcohol and drug-related offences. He left home to join the anti-Soviet campaign in Afghanistan during the late 1980s and this experience appears to have set the direction of his subsequent activities. On his return to Jordan, he clashed with the authorities as founder of a movement known as al-Muwahhidun, or sometimes as Tawhid, which sought to abolish the monarchy and establish an Islamic state. For this he was sentenced to 15 years in prison in 1996.

He lobbied for prisoners' rights - particularly the right to pray - and had some success in securing an improvement in conditions. He left Jordan after being released under a general amnesty in 1999. From here, the hard evidence about his activities ends. The only images that exist of him are four police photographs taken when he was in Jordanian custody between 1996 and 1999.

He is believed to have gone to Afghanistan and Pakistan, travelling on to Iraq and Iran where he raised money for and planned a series of terrorist attacks against Jordanian and western targets. Islamist experts in London who are familiar with al-Qaeda figures say they know little about Mr Zarqawi and regard his growing notoriety as "an American story". US, Jordanian and Kurdish officials give greatest credence to Mr Zarqawi's importance as a terrorist "field commander" in Iraq. Some Islamist experts, however, are particularly doubtful about the authenticity of a letter, released by US officials earlier this year, said to be from Mr Zarqawi to al-Qaeda leaders, urging them to help foment sectarian conflict. If Mr Zarqawi is linked to an Iran- backed group, they ask, why would he associate with acts of violence against Iraq's Shia?

If Mr Zarqawi ever emerges from the shadows, his capture would undoubtedly be a great propaganda coup for US-led forces in Iraq. But as a symbol, real or imagined, of the insurgency, the threat he poses could prove more enduring.

By FIONA SYMON

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