Zarqawi killed in US strike
Photo: Channel 2
Al Qaeda in Iraq chooses Zarqawi successor
Terror movement names new leader Sheikh Abu Hamza al-Muhaji to keep up campaign of beheadings and suicide bombings
Al Qaeda in Iraq said its new leader named on Monday would keep up a campaign of beheadings and suicide bombings begun by the Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi,
who was killed by US bombs last week.
"The shura council of al Qaeda in Iraq unanimously agreed on Sheikh Abu Hamza al-Muhajir to be a successor to Sheikh Abu Musab al-Zarqawi," said a statement signed by al Qaeda and posted on a Web site frequently used by Islamist militants.
The warning came on a day when violence, including two car bombs, killed at least 34 people. In the worst attack, a bomb killed at least 10 people at a market in the upscale Mansour district of western Baghdad.
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"Sheikh Abu Hamza al-Muhajir is a good brother, has a history in jihad and is knowledgeable. We ask God that he ... continue what Sheikh Abu Musab began," it said.
But US President George W. Bush immediately said Zarqawi's successor would be in US sights, signaling the US military would keep targeting insurgent leaders.
Bush was speaking to reporters after convening high-level consultations at the Camp David presidential retreat hoping to capitalize on Zarqawi's death. "I think the successor to Zarqawi is going to be on our list to bring to justice," he said.
Muhajir was not among the names al Qaeda experts had expected to succeed Zarqawi, a Sunni militant who US and Iraqi officials said was seeking to spark a sectarian civil war.
Although US and Iraqi leaders have hailed Zarqawi's death in an American air strike as a major blow against al Qaeda, no one has suggested the 500-pound bombs that ended his life would halt the violence ravaging Iraq.
Al Qaeda expert Fares bin Houzam said Muhajir could be a pseudonym for Egyptian militant Abu Ayyub al-Masri, who US officials have said could succeed Zarqawi, or Saudi-born Sheikh Abu Hafs al-Qarni, whom al Qaeda named as Zarqawi's deputy last year in an Internet statement later retracted.
