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Resistance groups have frequently said they only target the US military and distanced themselves from random blasts.
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BAGHDAD — The death of Al-Qaeda leader in Iraq Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi is an ample opportunity for "real" resistance groups to come out of their shell and distance themselves from blood-drenched terrorists, who target innocent civilians, Iraqi experts said on Friday, June 9.
"Now that Zarqawi is gone, resistance groups can prove their mettle and step up their attacks against US occupation troops, which often go unreported," unlike grisly bombings and beheadings committed by the Zarqawi's group, Hisham Al-Haboubi, a political analyst told IslamOnline.net.
He said resistance groups had rejected to be placed in one basket with Al-Qaeda, which thinks differently.
"Both are not wedded to the same ideology; they have their own strategy and goals," he noted.
Haboubi said it is unlikely that the void left by Zarqawi would be filled soon.
"It will take Al-Qaeda a while to introduce a popular and leading character like Zarqawi," he noted.
He said the death of Zarqawi — whose operations were seen by Iraqi politicians as one of the main reasons hampering the political process — could troubleshoot Iraqi political problems and revitalize the political landscape.
"Media portrayed this man as an invincible hero and the government in a hopeless situation," he said.
US warplanes killed Zarqawi in a strike that President George W. Bush said could help to turn the tide against the "insurgency," a loose term used by the US military to describe all armed groups in Iraq, resistance or not, without distinction.
The Al-Qaeda leader was said to have been killed in a joint US-Iraqi operation helped by tip-offs from Jordanian intelligence.
The US military released pictures of the corpse of Zarqawi with facial abrasions and eyes closed.
Unabated
Nizar Al-Samarrai, another political analyst, said it is wrong to believe that resistance operations would abate by Zarqawi's death.
"Resistance groups have nothing to do with Al-Qaeda at the first place and this mix has been made by the US administration and Iraqi officials," he told IOL.
He said Al-Qaeda is not popular at all as it targeted crowded markets, Shiite mosques and failed to champion pressing Iraqi issues.
"This unpopularity helped the US and Iraqi intelligence communities to get tip-offs on the whereabouts of Zarqawi, who had $25 million bounty on his head."
Resistance attacks, which started after the US occupation in 2003, has left so far up to 2,400 US servicemen killed, sending shockwaves across the United States.
Two Iraqi resistance groups, the Islamic Army in Iraq and the Mujahideen Army, appointed last July 3, an official spokesman to speak in their name, in a bid to silence all those who speak in the name of resistance fighters.
US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld confirmed in June of last year that US officials had met with Iraqi resistance leaders on several occasions.
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