Fugitive shifts up US wanted list

BAGHDAD - Fugitive militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the chief United States suspect in a wave of deadly attacks in Iraq, has rapidly moved from relative obscurity to the big league of Washington's most wanted men.

"Zarqawi is really high up there" on the US list of wanted terrorists, said an Administration counter-terrorism official. "To keep together an effective, functioning network under the pressure he must be under says a lot about his persistence and organisational ability."

Yesterday Iraqi Shiite Muslim leaders called for calm and urged their followers not to be provoked into civil war.

Huge crowds of mourners marched through the holy city of Karbala chanting "God is Greatest" and bearing flower-laden coffins aloft through streets packed with Shiites. Thousands more, joined by Sunni Muslims, converged on Baghdad's most sacred Shiite mosque to urge unity and reject sectarian strife.

Iraq's US Governor, Paul Bremer, said border security would be tightened and vowed that attempts to provoke civil war would fail.

The coalition is doubling the 8000-strong border police force, adding vehicles and police. Bremer said US$60 million had been allocated for the additional security.

More than any other militant in Washington's sights, Zarqawi concerns the Bush Administration not only because of the casualties he might inflict, but because of the damage he could do to US political ambitions in Iraq and the region.

The US sees Zarqawi as an emerging kingpin with possible links to al Qaeda who is spearheading attacks to sow chaos and discord in Iraq.

But some critics say Washington is using questionable intelligence on Zarqawi, a Jordanian with Palestinian roots, to back its claims that foreign militants are behind the bloodshed in Iraq.

The commander of US forces in the Middle East, Army General John Abizaid, yesterday linked Zarqawi to the attacks this week against Shiite Muslims in which Iraqi officials say at least 169 people were killed.

US officials suspect Zarqawi's handiwork in a string of other bloody bombings, and say they intercepted a letter from him last month urging attacks on Shiites. The US recently doubled the bounty on his head to US$10 million ($15.14 million).

Analysts say the Administration also worries Zarqawi could undermine its future influence in the greater Middle East by denying a US foothold in Iraq and destroying hopes of creating a new Arab ally.

When US Secretary of State Colin Powell sought to prove a "sinister nexus" between Osama bin Laden and ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein through Zarqawi in the run-up to the Iraq war, few people had heard of the Afghanistan war veteran who lost a leg in a US air raid after the September 11 attacks.

Critics say they are wary of Washington's focus on Zarqawi, noting questionable intelligence on Iraq from the presence of weapons of mass destruction to the links between Saddam and al Qaeda. No evidence of either has been found.

Zarqawi was sentenced in Jordan to death in absentia for his role in a plot to attack a hotel and other sites during celebrations for the millennium.

US officials say he was behind several deadly attacks in Iraq, including the August bombing of the United Nations office in Baghdad.

- REUTERS

Herald Feature: Iraq