From street thug to icon of ‘holy war’

ABU Musab al-Zarqawi rose from the life of a street thug in Jordan to become the symbol of ‘holy war’ in Iraq, masterminding the bloodiest suicide bombings of the insurgency, beheading hostages and helping push Iraq into a spiral of sectarian violence with vicious attacks against Shi’ites.

The Jordanian-born 39-year-old was the most prominent of the insurgency’s leaders, but his strength within the movement was never certain.

Home-grown Sunni Iraqi guerrillas — who are believed to have tense relations with al-Zarqawi — are thought to have had an equal or even greater role in deadly attacks on US and Iraqi forces and Shi’ites.