 ZARQA, Jordan - Abu Musab Al Zarqawi’s favourite sister refuses to believe the Al Qaeda frontman has been killed and hopes God will find someone even better to replace him as an Iraq insurgent leader. In her home in the impoverished Jordanian town of Zarqa, Umm Qudama, 33, sobs repeatedly as the news of her brother’s death in a US air raid north of Baghdad sinks in. “Are you really sure he is dead?” she asks people gathered around her as a camera crew from Al Jazeera television prepares to interview her husband.
| Oh yeah-yeah-yeah, sweetie, Baby-Bo'kins is dead-dead-dead! |
If the dreadful news is true, she says, her only consolation would be that “God may give the mujahedeen somebody even better”.
In his interview with the Arabic news channel, her husband Abu Qudama, also known as Saleh Al Hani, paid lavish tribute to his slain brother-in-law, prompting Jordanian police to cut the live broadcast in mid-transmission. “If he had lived in a European country, the president would have kissed his feet,” Abu Qudama said, before being cut off.
| I'm guessing Abu doesn't get out much and doesn't have the firmest grip on world affairs. |
It was Zarqawi who organized the coupleÂ’s marriage. After meeting Abu Qudama in Pakistan in 1990 and hearing his complaints that he would never find a wife after losing a leg to a landmine, Zarqawi sent for his sister, then just 17. |