Meet The New Jihad

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U.S. intelligence officials say they now believe Iraq is a magnet for fanatical Muslims around the world. "It's become the proving ground," says a senior U.S. intelligence official. The jihadists are convinced they can continue fighting indefinitely. "Jihad is not made by us," says a midlevel insurgent leader. "It is made by the Prophet and will continue to Judgment Day." With the U.S. ceding political power to Iraqis this week, here's an inside look at how the new jihadists operate and the threats they pose to stability in Iraq.

THE GODFATHER

Before the U.S. invaded IRAQ last spring, al-Zarqawi was a fringe player on the global terrorist stage. According to U.S. intelligence officials, the 37-year-old Jordanian spent months traveling from Afghanistan to Iran to Georgia, offering his services as a terrorism consultant to Islamist groups. His firmest prewar connections were with Ansar al-Islam, a Kurdish-based militant group associated with al-Qaeda. Intelligence officials suspect that last spring al-Zarqawi fled to Iran and joined the terrorist group's leadership there before slipping back into Iraq.

Over the past six months, al-Zarqawi's profile in jihadi circles has risen with the increase in terrorist attacks in Iraq, including suicide bombings. Through aggressive use of the Internet, al-Zarqawi has promoted himself and his group, Attawhid wal Jihad, or Unity and Holy War. A senior U.S. military official says the U.S. believes that al-Zarqawi played a chief role in the coordination of last week's violence and is gearing up for more. "This guy knows his [stuff]," says the official.

From what Iraqi members of jihadist groups closely affiliated with al-Zarqawi's network describe, the Jordanian operates more as a godfather-style mafioso than a traditional military commander. Insurgent commanders told TIME that al-Zarqawi does not direct day-to-day operations but guides strategy and is involved in the planning of major operations. Al-Zarqawi possesses an unmatched ability to persuade and indoctrinate. "Some of the emirs just have to sit with him and listen," says a senior Fallujah-based commander, "and they walk away committed to him."

Al-Zarqawi's role at the center of the insurgency was cemented in April, during the standoff between militants and U.S. Marines in Fallujah. Foreign fighters from throughout the Middle East, including Syria and Saudi Arabia, manned the barricades alongside Iraqi fighters during the Marines' offensive. This kind of on-the-ground cooperation was rare in the past, according to Iraqi cell leaders, in part because foreigners were viewed as terrorists interested only in major attacks against civilian targets. Now foreigners team up with Iraqis to employ more traditional guerrilla tactics, such as roadside ambushes and mortar attacks against U.S. forces.