Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was the leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq. Zarqawi took responsibility, on several audiotapes, for numerous acts of terrorism in Iraq and Jordan. These acts include suicide bombings, and the killing of soldiers, police officers, and civilians. As an Islamist that identified with the Salafi movement, Zarqawi opposed the presence of United States and Western military forces in the Islamic world and opposed the West's support for and the existence of Israel. In September 2005, he reportedly declared "all-out war" on Shia Muslims in Iraq and is believed responsible for dispatching numerous Al-Qaeda suicide bombers throughout Iraq, especially to areas with large concentrations of Shia civilians. As the leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq he is suspected of responsibility for thousands of deaths. Zarqawi was killed in a US airstrike in June, 2006.

Read the rest of this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Musab_al-Zarqawi

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1598: Admiral Yi Sun Sin's Korean navy defeated the Japanese fleet in the Battle of Noryang Point, the final naval battle of the Imjin War. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Noryang_Point)

1653: The Protectorate: Oliver Cromwell became Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_Cromwell)

1689: The Parliament of England adopted the Bill of Rights, declaring that Englishmen possessed certain positive civil and political rights. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_of_Rights_1689)

1773: Boston Tea Party: To protest the British Tea Act, members of the Sons of Liberty dumped crates of tea break from three British East India Company ships into Boston Harbor. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_Tea_Party)

1971: The Indo-Pakistani War ended when Pakistani forces in East Pakistan surrendered. This also effectively ended the Bangladesh Liberation War and led to Bangladesh's independence from Pakistan. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-Pakistani_War_of_1971)

_____________________ Wikiquote of the day:

What renders man an imaginative and moral being is that in society he gives new aims to his life which could not have existed in solitude: the aims of friendship, religion, science, and art. -- George Santayana (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/George_Santayana)