Raids Target Zarqawi Group

The United States conducted at least 56 raids against targets connected with Abu Musab Zarqawi’s Al Qaeda in Iraq organization in the 48 hours after his death, seeking to capitalize on the killing by disrupting his network of fighters, military officials said.

After killing Zarqawi and five others Wednesday by bombing his hide-out, U.S. forces conducted 17 raids in Baghdad and at 39 additional sites Thursday and Friday, said Army Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell IV, a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad.

Military officials showed pictures of items seized in the raids, including weapons, uniforms and ammunition, and said at least 25 people had been captured and one killed. They did not provide an assessment of the damage the raids inflicted on insurgents’ operations.

U.S. military commanders maintained a measured reaction to Zarqawi’s death, although they expressed greater satisfaction Friday, calling it “an important step forward.”

Iraqi officials banned vehicular traffic in Baghdad as they braced for retaliatory attacks, and reports indicated that a U.S. convoy had been struck by a roadside bomb in Ramadi, touching off battles around the city between insurgents and U.S. and Iraqi forces.

U.S. officials also provided additional details of the Zarqawi attack, confirming that the insurgent leader survived for a few minutes after the house was hit by two 500-pound bombs. Caldwell said the Iraqi police officers who were first on the scene put Zarqawi on a stretcher, which was where he was when American forces arrived.

“Zarqawi attempted to sort of turn away off the stretcher,” Caldwell said. “Everybody resecured him back on the stretcher, but he died immediately thereafter from the wounds he had received from the airstrike.”

Before Zarqawi died, Caldwell said, he mumbled some words, but they were unintelligible. Caldwell also said Zarqawi had been badly bloodied and that coalition forces had “cleaned up his face” for otherwise unaltered photographs of his corpse.

Describing the raids that followed his killing, Caldwell said the first 17 operations were conducted against suspected Al Qaeda personnel whom the coalition had been watching.

No action had been taken against them previously “because they were giving us key indicators at different points in time as to where Zarqawi might be.” After Zarqawi was killed, U.S. forces moved against the cells.

Information gathered from those raids and from the ruins of Zarqawi’s house helped lead to another series of operations. Caldwell said some of the raids in the second series were directly related to information developed from the first series of raids, whereas others had more indirect links.

An Iraqi army source said U.S. and Iraqi forces had executed a series of raids in Diyala province and detained 25 people in the village of Hibhib, near where Zarqawi was killed.

President Bush said Friday that the Muslim extremists in Iraq had “lost their general.” Although his previous comments have been more tempered, in a news conference at Camp David with the visiting Danish prime minister Bush showed exuberance over the death of Iraq’s most prominent insurgent.

“I am thrilled that Zarqawi was brought to justice,” Bush said.

“Zarqawi’s death helps a lot. It’s a big deal, but it’s certainly not the end of the conflict.”

Bush’s words were echoed in the sermons of Shiite religious leaders in Iraq, who exulted in the killing even as they prepared their congregations for more violence.

“The death of Zarqawi doesn’t mean the end of terrorism and violence,” said Sheik Jalaluddin Saghir, a Shiite cleric at the Bratha Mosque in Baghdad. “His followers may try to retaliate, and some of the seditious satellite television channels are going to try to beat their drums and encourage the remaining criminals to use more car bombs and killings.”

One of the biggest questions confronting Iraqis and U.S. military leaders is the fate of Zarqawi’s organization and who will lead it.

Caldwell indicated that military officials in Iraq believed Zarqawi’s role was likely to be filled by a shadowy Al Qaeda operative known as Abu Ayyub Masri.

Masri is Egyptian-born, and Caldwell said that he and Zarqawi met at a training camp in Afghanistan in 2001 or 2002.

Caldwell said Masri arrived in Iraq before Zarqawi and formed the first Al Qaeda cell in the country.

Masri is also known to have been in contact with Ayman Zawahiri, the Egyptian-born physician who is Osama bin Laden’s second in command, Caldwell said.

But U.S. intelligence and counter-terrorism officials in Washington said it was far from clear that Masri would emerge as the new leader of Al Qaeda’s network in Iraq, or that any single figure would assume the role.

Masri could be the Al Qaeda leadership’s preferred candidate because of his ties to Zawahiri, his training in Afghanistan and his presumed willingness to follow orders from Bin Laden -- a quality that Zarqawi, a former street thug who grew up in Jordan, sometimes seemed to lack. But some U.S. analysts say it is unlikely that Al Qaeda will turn to another foreigner to head operations in Iraq.

“It would make more sense for an Iraqi because there has been an effort to put more of an Iraqi face” on its activities there, said a U.S. counter-terrorism official, who, like others, spoke on condition of anonymity. “The feeling is it’s going to take some time to sort out.”

A U.S. intelligence official said local Al Qaeda commanders would probably have a significant say in who, if anyone, took over for Zarqawi.

“But they will also probably want to consult with the main office,” the official said, referring to Bin Laden and his senior deputies.

The “Iraqification” of Zarqawi’s wing of Al Qaeda may help the organization survive the death of its leader, terrorism experts said.

The group has benefited from a growing radicalization of the nation’s insurgency.

Frustrated by the limited governmental role of Sunni political parties and angry about what they see as persecution by Shiite militia groups and the Shiite-dominated police force, some Sunni insurgents have turned from the ranks of Saddam Hussein’s Baath Party to those of Al Qaeda, a senior U.S. intelligence official in Iraq said.

“The old Baathist regime elements ... are they really out there? Not in that big, organized way,” the official said. “They melted away, and now you’ll find hard-line elements like that inside of Al Qaeda in Iraq.”

The Iraqi face of Al Qaeda has not gone unnoticed by Iraq’s Shiite majority, the target of many of Zarqawi’s attacks.

In the minds of many Shiites, the Baathists are now linked to Al Qaeda.

In a sermon in Najaf on Friday, one cleric accused Hussein loyalists of helping Zarqawi.

“The origin of terror is the Baathists who provided him with a safe haven to move,” Sadruddin Qubanchi said. “Without their help, he would not have been able to perpetrate his crimes. Therefore, the Iraqi government should start chasing the Baathists and put them in jails and never set them free.”

Reuben Paz, director of the Project for the Research of Islamist Movements, an Israel-based think tank, said he noticed a growing number of Iraqi Al Qaeda figures last year.

“We started to see more Iraqi names among the suicide bombers,” he said.

“Before, 90% of the bombers were foreigners -- and you still see many Saudis and Syrians and Yemenis.

“But I’m also seeing more Iraqis. I believe Zarqawi managed to raise up a new group of Iraqi commanders, so his death will not affect their operational ability.”

U.S. military leaders in Al Anbar province in western Iraq argue that they have seen a wedge develop between local Sunni leaders and Zarqawi’s organization.

Mohammed abu Rumman, a Jordanian journalist specializing in Muslim political movements, said Sunni Arab tribes had begun attacking Al Qaeda foreigners in western towns such as Husaybah, Qaim and Ramadi. The foreign fighters often persecuted local Sunnis and damaged Zarqawi’s standing among even militant Iraqis.

Rumman said the divisions between Al Qaeda and local Sunnis had persuaded Zarqawi to give more power to Iraqi commanders.

He believes the group will become even more Iraqi in the months to come.

“I think now there will be a transformation in Al Qaeda in Iraq after the death of Zarqawi,” Rumman said. “It could be that the main branch of Al Qaeda plays more of a leadership role, but it’s more likely that Iraqis will take this role. If this happens, they will focus more heavily on Iraq.”

Terrorism experts, military officers and intelligence officials agree that no matter what happens to Al Qaeda in Iraq, in the short term U.S. forces should expect Zarqawi’s followers to attempt spectacular attacks to prove they remain viable.

In Ramadi, where U.S. forces have been bracing for such retaliation, a U.S. convoy was hit by a roadside bomb about 5 p.m. Friday, Al Arabiya satellite television reported.

The news channel said the bombing had sparked battles around Ramadi, with insurgents using rocket launchers and rifles against U.S. and Iraqi troops.

Iraqi police sources said an assault by U.S. and Iraqi forces focused on the center of the city. They said several violent clashes occurred.

It was not clear whether Zarqawi’s followers were responsible for the initial attack, and a military spokesman in Baghdad was not able to immediately confirm that an attack or subsequent clashes occurred.

Curfews were imposed in Baghdad and Diyala provinces, but in the southern city of Samawah, residents defied their curfew in order to celebrate Zarqawi’s death.

Throughout Iraq, people sent celebratory cellphone messages and e-mailed friends to express their relief that Zarqawi had been killed.

“I received many congratulation messages and I know that many people are happy about the killing of this infamous terrorist,” said Zainab Sahib, a 21-year-old university student. “But killing Zarqawi will not end terrorism, and I hope the security forces will keep following the terrorists.”

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Barnes and Miller reported from Washington and Moore from Baghdad.