Abu Musab al-Zarqawi

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi (أَبُو مُصْعَبٍ ٱلزَّرْقَاوِيُّ, ', Father of Musab, from Zarqa; ; October 30, 1966 – June 7, 2006), born Ahmad Fadeel al-Nazal al-Khalayleh (أَحْمَدُ فَضِيلِ ٱلنَّزَالِ ٱلْخَلَايْلَةَ, '), was a Jordanian jihadist who ran a terrorist training camp in Afghanistan.

He became known after going to Iraq and being responsible for a series of bombings, beheadings, and attacks during the Iraq War, reportedly "turning an insurgency against US troops" in Iraq "into a Shia–Sunni civil war".

He was sometimes known by his supporters as the "Sheikh of the slaughterers".

"Abu Musab" literally translates to "Musab's father", born in the name Ahmed al-Khalayleh to an impoverished Jordanian family in 1966.

Raised in Zarqa, an industrial town located 27 kilometers (17 mi) north of Amman, with seven sisters and two brothers, and of Bedouin background, his father has been described as either a retired army officer or a practitioner of traditional medicine whose death precipitated the economic distress of the family, pushing Zarqawi to become a street thug, known for his fights, the terror he inspired, his heavy drinking and his nickname "the Green Man" because of his many tattoos.

Zarqawi is thus usually described as having been a high school dropout and a petty criminal in his youth, including, allegedly, a procurer of prostitutes.

In the late 1980s, Zarqawi went to Afghanistan to join the Mujahideen who were fighting the invading Soviet troops.

He arrived there in 1989, as the Soviets were already leaving.

Instead of fighting, he became a reporter for an Islamist newsletter called Al-Bonian al-Marsous.

On the other hand, Ahmed Hashim says that he did fight in the battles of Khost and Gardez, while the magazine, which translates as The Solid Edifice in English, was published in both Arabic and Urdu from the Hayatabad suburb of Peshawar in Pakistan, where he also met his future spiritual mentor, the influential Salafi jihadi ideologue Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi, in 1990.

It is also there that he celebrated the marriage of one of his seven sisters to Abu Qudama Salih al-Hami, a Jordanian-Palestinian journalist close to the Palestinian militant Abdullah Azzam, known for "resurrecting jihad" in modern times, because he was one-legged and he thought he couldn't find a suitable partner otherwise, while, years later, the same al-Hami would write a book entitled Fursan al-Farida al-Gha’iba (Knights of the Neglected Duty [of Jihad]), where he criticized Maqdisi's jihadi credentials after he parted ways with Zarqawi.

Ultimately, he lived in Pakistan for some 10 years, mainly in and around Peshawar, and eventually became fluent in Pashto.

He was arrested in Jordan after guns and explosives were found in his home and sent to prison in 1992.

He formed Jama'at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad in 1999, and led it until his death in June 2006.

Zarqawi took responsibility, on several audio and video recordings, for numerous acts of violence in Iraq including suicide bombings and hostage executions.

Zarqawi opposed the presence of U.S. and Western military forces in the Islamic world, as well as the West's support for the existence of Israel.

According to a report by The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, "Zarqawi's criminal past and extreme views on takfir (accusing another Muslim of heresy and thereby justifying his killing) created major friction and distrust with bin Laden when the two first met in Afghanistan in 1999."

In 1999, Zarqawi was released from prison in a general amnesty by Jordan's King Abdullah.

Within months after his release, according to Jordanian officials, Zarqawi tried to resurrect his Jund al-Sham.

Then, also according to Jordanian officials, he was involved in the millennium plot—a bid to bomb the Radisson SAS Hotel in Amman (Jordan) before New Year's Day 2000.

The plot was discovered, and Zarqawi fled to Pakistan.

When Pakistan revoked his visa, he crossed into Afghanistan, where he met, still according to Jordanian officials and also German court testimony, with Osama bin Laden and other al-Qaeda leaders in Kandahar and Kabul.

He asked them for assistance and money to set up his own training camp in Herat.

With some "small seed money" of $200,000 from Osama bin Laden, the camp opened soon and attracted Jordanian militants.

In late 2004 he joined al-Qaeda, and pledged allegiance to Osama bin Laden.

After this al-Tawhid wal-Jihad became known as Tanzim Qaidat al-Jihad fi Bilad al-Rafidayn, also known as al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), and al-Zarqawi was given the al-Qaeda title "Emir of Al Qaeda in the Country of Two Rivers".

In prison, he attempted to draft his cell mates into joining him to overthrow the rulers of Jordan, a former prison mate told Time magazine in 2004.

According to Jordanian officials and acquaintances, Zarqawi developed a reputation as a cellblock enforcer and adopted more radical Islamic beliefs.

In prison, due to his charisma and stature, he eventually became a sort of leader, issuing fatwas (religious edicts) and calling himself "sheikh", while he also memorized the entire Qur'an.

For the Jordanian journalist Fouad Hussein, who was in jail with him, it was not the Afghan jihad, but his prison years (which included eight and a half months in solitary confinement, as well as loss of his toenails due to infection from torture) that radicalized him: "The prison left a clear mark on al-Zarqawi's personality, which grew more intense. In his opinion, policemen, judges, and government members of all ranks were supporters of the regimes, which he believed were tawagheet [tyrants] who should be fought."

He also worked on his physical training.

In September 2005, he declared "all-out war" on Shi'ites in Iraq, after the Iraqi government offensive on insurgents in the Sunni town of Tal Afar.

He dispatched numerous suicide bombers throughout Iraq to attack American soldiers and areas with large concentrations of Shia militias.

He is also thought to be responsible for the 2005 bombing of three hotels in Amman, Jordan.

Zarqawi was killed in a targeted killing by a joint U.S. force on June 7, 2006, while attending a meeting in an isolated safehouse in Hibhib, a small village approximately 8 km west-northwest of Baqubah.

One United States Air Force F-16C jet dropped two 500-pound (230 kg) guided bombs on the safehouse.

"Abu Musab was a sturdy man who was not really very good at words. He expressed himself spontaneously and briefly. He would not compromise any of his beliefs."

Ahmad Fadeel al-Nazal al-Khalayleh (أحمد فضيل النزال الخلايلة ), is believed to have been al-Zarqawi's real name.

Another sister married the Jordanian-Palestinian militant Khalid al-Aruri (alias Abu al-Qassam), "one of Zarqawi's closest lieutenants in Afghanistan", another married Haytham Mustafa Obeidat (alias Abu Hassan), "a veteran of the Afghan jihad", and yet another sister married the Jordanian Iyad Nazmi Salih Khalil (his aliases being Abu Julaybib al-Urduni and Iyad al-Tubasi), a veteran jihadi militant, who eventually would become the "third highest-ranking official" of the Al-Nusra Front in the Syrian Civil War, in 2016, before being killed in 2018.

He was recruited by Abu Qutaibah al Majali to fight in Afghanistan.