Abu Musab al-Zarqawi: Difference between revisions

He formed Jama'at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad in the 1990s, and led it until his death in June 2006. Zarqawi took responsibility, on several audio and video recordings, for numerous acts of violence in Iraq including suicide bombings and hostage executions. Zarqawi opposed the presence of US and Western military forces in the Islamic world, as well as the West's support for the existence of Israel. In late 2004 he joined [http://real-life-villains.wikia.com/wiki/Al-Qaeda Al-Qaeda], and pledged allegiance to [http://real-life-villains.wikia.com/wiki/Osama_bin_Laden Osama bin Laden]. After this al-Tawhid wal-Jihad became known as Al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), and al-Zarqawi was given the Al-Qaeda title, "Emir of Al Qaeda in the Country of Two Rivers".

In May 2004, a video appeared on an alleged al-Qaeda website showing a group of five men, their faces covered with keffiyeh or balaclavas, beheading American civilian Nicholas Berg, who had been abducted and taken hostage in Iraq weeks earlier. The CIA claimed that the speaker on the tape wielding the knife that killed Berg was al-Zarqawi. The video opens with the title "Abu Musab al-Zarqawi slaughters an American." The speaker states that the murder was in retaliation for U.S. abuses at the Abu Ghraib prison. Following the death of al-Zarqawi, CNN spoke with Nicholas's father and long-time war activist Michael Berg, who stated that al-Zarqawi's killing would lead to further vengeance and was not a cause for rejoicing.