IRAQ - Zarqawi's Successor.

A website used by Iraq's al-Qaeda on June 12 claimed the group had appointed a successor to Zarqawi: Abu Hamza al-Muhajir. The US military on June 15 said they believed this was an Egyptian whose real name was Abu Ayyub al-Masri, who attended al-Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan and was a key Zarqawi lieutenant.

The Iraqi government on June 15 released a "document" drawn up by al-Qaeda which purported to show the difficult state of the Neo-Salafi insurgency in Iraq, and which called for efforts to sabotage the US relationship with Iraqi Shi'ites - and start a war between the US and Iran to salvage it. The document said the insurgency was being weakened by the US programme to train Iraqi security forces which, it said, were making headway in arresting militants, seizing weapons and disputing the insurgents' financial networks. The document said: "Time is now beginning to be of service to the American forces and harmful to the resistance. We mean specifically attempting to escalate the tension between America and Iran, and US and the Shi'ites in Iraq".

According to the government, one document showed Neo-Salafi co-operation with groups loyal to ousted Ba'thist dictator Saddam. It was one of documents found in Zarqawi's hideout after the June 7 air strike. The government said "a number of documents" provided "the broad guidelines of the programme of the Saddamists and the takfiris inside Zarqawi's group". Takfiri is a reference to the extremist Neo-Salafi ideology which urges Muslims to kill anyone they consider an infidel, even fellow Muslims such as Shi'ites and/or Sunnis collaborating with the US.

One document said Neo-Salafi insurgents were being weakened by operations against them and by their failure to attract recruits. To give new impetus to the insurgency, they would have to change tactics, it said, adding: "We mean specifically attempting to escalate the tension between America and Iran, and America and the Shi'ites in Iraq", especially among followers of Grand Ayatollah Ali al- Sistani. It pointed to clashes in 2004 between US forces and followers of anti-US mullah Muqtada al-Sadr and his Jaysh al-Mahdi militia as evidence of the benefits of such a strategy.

The US military on June 15 released pictures Abu Ayyub al-Masri, alias Shaikh Abu Hamza al-Mohajir, believed to be operating out of Baghdad. Gen Caldwell said Mohajir and Masri (an Egyptian) were "one and the same".

In his web posting Muhajir attacked Shi'ites saying he would fight them to death and would "continue what our Shaikh Abu Mus'ab - God have mercy on him - began". Muhajir (or Mohajer) addressed part of his statement to bin Laden, saying: "We await your signal and follow your orders, and we give you the good tidings that morale is high among your soldiers".