Taking a number two. posted by Richard Seymour

Call me a wily old trustless cynic if you will and if you really must, but when I first saw the headlines screaming that "Zarqawi's number two" had been shot dead in Iraq by US forces, I thought: "oh yeah?" What's more: "Come off it!" Further: "Pull the other one, it's got herpes on it". I began to write:

Al-Zarqawi's "second-in-command" keeps changing his name and fate.

In July, he was called Abu Abd al-Aziz, and allegedly captured while in Baghdad. He was apparently known as "the emir of Baghdad".

Today, it is reported that the second-in-command is (was) Abu Azzam, known as "the amir" of Anbar. He has been shot.

Previous second-in-commands of repute have included Khalid Suleiman Darwish, Abdel Rahman al-Iraqi, Mustafa Setmariam Nasar, Abdullah al-Janabi... look, sort it out will you.

It transpires that I needn't have bothered as two rather smug looking muppets writing for Newsweek have shredded the story already. It seems that everyone they manage to pinch with a bullet is a 'leading Al Qaeda figure', a 'top Zarqawi ally' or something of the kind. Remember, Zarqawi is a monster without being a man, which is rather unfair.

See also this, this, this this, this, this and this.