Al Qaida network chief Abu Mussib Al Zarqawi has finally done it. He has angered too many important Sunni leaders, including supporters of Saddam Hussein. Iraqi sources said Sunni leaders are furious over Al Zarqawi's killing of two prominent religious and political figures in Iraq.
The sources said the Saddam supporters have warned Sunni tribes to end their support of Al Zarqawi in western Iraq. The Al Qaida assassination of Sunni dignitaries Hamza Abbas Issawi and Iyad Al Ezzi was the straw that broke the camel's back. Now, the Saddam supporters have vowed revenge.
This shouldn't be any surprise to Al Zarqawi. For the past year, he had been warned by Al Qaida's No. 2 Ayman Zawahiri to stop attacking Iraqis and limit his strikes to U.S. forces. But Al Zarqawi dismissed the appeals, believing that suicide strikes against Shi'ites and assassination of Sunnis resonated well with young Islamists throughout the Middle East and Europe.
As a result, Al Zarqawi can no longer seek haven in many parts of the Sunni Triangle, the Iraqi sources said. Scores of his leading operatives have been captured or killed in quiet cooperation between Iraqi government forces and Sunni insurgents.
The sources believe that within the next few weeks, Al Zarqawi could be driven out of Iraq or killed. Al Zarqawi still has significant support in such hardcore cities as Fallujah and Ramadi, however.
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