Zarqawi Claims Show Power Play?

Race Heats Up For Al Qaeda Top Iraq Job Amid Zarqawi Speculation

(CBS/AP)  Al Hayat quoted multiple unidentified sources, saying figures in Jordan close to al-Zarqawi, including a former Iraqi officer, claimed two potential successors were Abu Maysara al-Iraqi and Abu al-Dardaa al-Iraqi, an al Qaeda operative in Baghdad.

Two Middle East experts on Islamic militants told The Associated Press that al-Gerni, a Saudi, has been al-Zarqawi's military adviser and is the emir, or prince — as senior commanders are called — of al Qaeda in Iraq's military committee. The experts spoke on condition they not be further identified.

Other experts believe such a list of likely candidates suggests Iraq's rampant insurgency, which has killed thousands in the past two years, would easily continue on in al-Zarqawi's absence.

"The real danger in Iraq is you have more than 50 attacks a day, with some made by al-Zarqawi and 80 percent made by others, in my opinion by professional people, not amateurs," said Diaa Rashwan, an expert on radical Islam at Egypt's Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies.

"It's not really a problem of who will be the successor," Rashwan said. "He's not a real leader of a real organization, he's a symbol for a kind of network for small Islamic groups which share tactics and ideology."

Heightened attention has surrounded al-Zarqawi in recent weeks, with a U.S. general claiming he may have personally chaired a meeting of his chief lieutenants in Syria a month ago aimed at ramping up suicide bombings and other attacks in Iraq.

The latest furor over al-Zarqawi began Tuesday when an Internet statement called on Muslims to pray for his life, followed by competing statements on his health and whereabouts.

Earlier this month, Iraqi security forces raided a Baghdad hospital after getting a tip that the master of disguise was receiving medical attention. Police came up with thin air.

It's worth remembering, Martin reports, that when Zarqawi first arrived in Baghdad before the war started, U.S. intelligence believed he had gone there for treatment after losing a leg in Afghanistan.

That, the military now knows, was wrong.

U.S. forces launched a weeklong offensive in the country's far west to root out al-Zarqawi supporters using the arid desert region to hide, stage terrorist attacks and crisscross between Iraq and Syria along ancient smuggling routes.

Army Brig. Gen. Carter Ham, the commander of Task Force Olympia who directed thousands of troops during 13 months of combat operations in al-Zarqawi's former stomping ground of northern Iraq, expects al-Zarqawi's killing or capture will lead to "some decision-making as to who would step up and take his place."

"My only caution is we ought not expect that when that happens that the organization will crumble and will cease to exist," Ham told a Pentagon briefing. "The organization has proven to be somewhat resilient."