Abu Musab al-Zarqawi

The Founding Father of Islamic State

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi (Arabic: أبو مصعب الزرقاوي‎‎,  pronunciation (help·info)’Abū Muṣ‘ab az-Zarqāwī, Abu Musab from Zarqa; October 20, 1966 – June 7, 2006), born Ahmad Fadeel al-Nazal al-Khalayleh (أحمد فضيل النزال الخلايله, ’Aḥmad Faḍīl an-Nazāl al-Ḫalāyla), was a militant Islamist from Jordan who ran a paramilitary 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 as “Shaykh of the slaughterers”.

He formed al-Tawhid wal-Jihad in the 1990s, and led it until his death in June 2006. Zarqawi took responsibility, on several audio and video recordings, for numerous acts of violence in…