Al-Zarqawi was supposedly Al Qaeda’s leader in Iraq. General George W Casey Jr, the head of US-led forces in Iraq, says his death is a significant blow to Al Qaeda, but:

“Although the designated leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq is now dead, the terrorist organisation still poses a threat as its members will continue to try to terrorise the Iraqi people and destabilise their Government as it moves toward stability and prosperity,”

It will be interesting to see what impact al-Zarqawi’s death has on the insurgency in Iraq. I suspect not much, although it is a morale boost to the US and Iraqi government forces. Problem is there are so many fundamentalist nutcases around that someone will step up and fill the leadership role and continue committing atrocities.

I find the portrayal of Al Qaeda in the media sometimes fascinating. Sometimes it seems like Al Qaeda is a franchise like McDonalds, with branches all over the world, all controlled by Osama bin Laden from his cave in Afghanistan. I suspect reality is that it is more a loose alliance of like-minded nutjobs, than anything organised more formally or tightly controlled.