Mixed Iraqi reaction to news of death
But the al-Qaida chief was mourned in the volatile Anbar province, the heart of the Sunni-led insurgency, and many Iraqi citizens had mixed reactions.
Thamir Abdulhussein, a college student in Baghdad, hoped the killing of al-Zarqawi will promote reconciliation between Iraq’s ethnic and sectarian groups. “If it’s true al-Zarqawi was killed, that will be a big happiness for all the Iraqis,” he said. “He was behind all the killings of Sunnis and Shi’ites. Iraqis should now move toward reconciliation.” Amir Muhammed Ali, a 45-year-old stockbroker in Baghdad, was sceptical that al-Zarqawi’s death would end the unrelenting violence, saying he was a foreigner but the Iraqi resistance to US-led forces would likely continue.
