Mixed Iraqi reaction to news of death

IRAQI police in Baghdad’s Shi’ite slum of Sadr City brandished their guns, firing in the air and chanting to show their elation over the news of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s 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.

“This is a black day in Ramadi. This a great loss for all Sunnis,” said Abid al-Duleimi. “If they killed al-Zarqawi, more than one al-Zarqawi will come out.”

The head of Iraq’s largest Shi’ite party, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, congratulated Iraqis on al-Zarqawi’s death and called on the government to “annihilate the remnants of this criminal”.“Al-Zarqawi dedicated his last years to killing innocent Iraqis in an unprecedented sectarian war with bombings and car bombs and that led to thousands of victims,” said Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim.

“Our people will continue fighting terrorists and build a stable and safe Iraq,” he added.

While many Iraqis welcomed the news of his death, they also expressed scepticism that it would stem the rampant sectarian and militia violence.

“The killing of al-Zarqawi will not change the bad security situation unless the Iraqi government eliminates all the terrorists,” said Yassir al-Hamdani, a 25-year-old student in the northern city of Mosul. “Still, his death is a big strike against terror.”

In the wider world, Arab extremists used the internet to mark the death of a man whom they saw as a true Muslim hero.

“Don’t be happy, Bush and small Abdullah,” wrote Abu-Hajar, addressing US president George Bush and Jordan’s King Abdullah II whose country helped track down al-Zarqawi. “The slaughterers are coming.”

Hours after al-Zarqawi’s death was made public, his supporters posted pictures of him alongside poems claiming he had earned a place next to Prophet Mohammed.