Al-Zarqawi death just a symbolic gain

Finally after months and months of cat and mouse game, the Americans at last emerged victorious in eliminating their main target – the slaughtering sheik Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

The most wanted terrorist in Iraq’s regime of terror came to a violent and bloody end yesterday after US warplanes dropped two 500-pound bombs on his isolated safe house.

During his lifetime, the sheik had been blamed for the continuing violence in Iraq. His fingerprints were visible in numerous kidnappings, beheadings and suicide bombings. He was thought to be the prime mover of the sectarian violence in the country. He had openly called for the vilification of Shiites as infidels.

So will this significant victory bring about to a peaceful Iraq?

If the immediate reaction of his fellow Sunnis is an indicator, then I think the trouble in Iraq will just continue for at the last count, at least 40 people were killed in bomb blasts in Baghdad just as his death was announced.

And his terror group al-Qaeda promises to continue its holy war and worse still, now they are dedicating it to the death of their martyr. Well, they will, won’t they? If not for anything, at least to tell the Americans that they will survive the loss of the leader.

And more worryingly, some experts believe that al-Zarqawi's importance was exaggerated and that the entire insurgency was not orchestrated and directed by a single figure. These experts believe that more than a dozen Sunni Arab insurgent groups are operating in Iraq, most employing ruthless tactics just as al-Zarqawi.

Given these then, the killing of al-Zarqawi looks like just a PR exercise for Washington and the new Iraqi government.