Mixed reaction from Iraqis after Zarqawi killing

Police in a Shiite slum brandished their guns and fired into the air in celebration today as Iraqis welcomed the announcement that terror leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed last night in a US airstrike.

But al-Zarqawi was mourned in the volatile Anbar province, the heart of the Sunni-led insurgency.

“This is a black day in Ramadi. This a great loss for all the Sunnis,” said 40-year-old worker Abid al-Duleimi. “If they killed al-Zarqawi, more than one al-Zarqawi will come out.”

The targeted airstrike yesterday evening was the culmination of a two-week-long hunt for al-Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq.

Tips from senior militants within the network led US forces to follow al-Zarqawi’s spiritual adviser to the safe house, 30 miles outside Baghdad, for a meeting with the terror leader.

The adviser, Sheikh Abu Abdul-Rahman al-Iraqi, was among seven aides also killed.

The head of Iraq’s largest Shiite 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,” Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim said in a statement.

“Our people will continue fighting terrorists and build a stable and safe Iraq,” al-Hakim added. His statement also praised Iraqi people for their important role in helping Iraqi security forces to “exterminate this criminal”.

The Jordanian-born terrorist, 39, was Iraq’s most-wanted militant and oversaw a wave of kidnappings of foreigners and the killings of at least a dozen, including Arab diplomats and three Americans.

His followers also frequently targeted Shiite civilians and mosques in an attempt to spark sectarian civil war, and in his statements, al-Zarqawi, a Sunni Arab, often vilified Shiites as infidels.

Just days before his death, al-Zarqawi issued an audiotape on the internet, railing against Shiites in Iraq and saying militias were raping women and killing Sunnis. He urged the community to fight back.

“We hope the killing of al-Zarqawi and his aides, those who killed many Iraqis, will finish all the terror in Iraq and let everybody live safely,” Anwar Abdul Hussein, a baker in the Shiite slum of Sadr City in Baghdad.

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

“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. “But still, his death is a big strike against terror.”

Abdul-Amir Ahmed Ali, speaking in the Shiite holy city of Najaf, called on the Iraqi government to take advantage of the vacuum left by al-Zarqawi’s death to strike against other insurgents.

“Killing Zarqawi made us very happy…but we have some fears that the followers of this criminal will try to undermine this happiness,” the 56-year-old carpenter said.

“I hope the government will hit with an iron fist. I hope this day will be turning point in the life of the Iraqis.”

Adul-Wahid Khalil, a teacher in Mosul, 225 miles north-west of Baghdad, was optimistic, comparing al-Zarqawi’s death with the ousting of Saddam Hussein in April 2003.

“The killing of al-Zarqawi today reminds me of the toppling of Saddam three years ago,” Khalil said.

“That gave the Iraqis more freedom and now we hope we will have peace.”