Al-Qaida in Iraq Names Official Successor to Zarqawi

By Evan Kohlmann

This morning, the Mujahideen Shura Council (MSC) released an authentic statement on behalf of Al-Qaida in Iraq announcing that Al-Qaida's Shura Council had agreed upon a successor to the late Abu Musab al-Zarqawi: a shadowy figure named Abu Hamza al-Muhajir. Though the statement offered no further details at to Abu Hamza's background, his name "al-Muhajir" ("the Emigrant") would tend to suggest that he is of non-Iraqi origin.

Interestingly, there do not appear to be obvious references to Abu Hamza al-Muhajir in any of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's propaganda material from the last three years, and to the best of my knowledge, neither the Iraqi government nor the U.S. military has ever publicly named him as a wanted Al-Qaida member. Even the jihadi community that supports Al-Qaida was caught somewhat offguard by this announcement -- many of them had simply assumed that Al-Qaida Deputy Commander Abu Abdelrahman al-Iraqi would take over in Zarqawi's absence.

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