MOSCOW, June 8 (RIA Novosti) - A senior member of Russia's parliament said Thursday the elimination of the al-Qaeda leader in Iraq was a major but short-term victory for the U.S.-led coalition forces in the country.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki announced earlier Thursday that the Jordanian-born leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, had been killed in an air strike north of the capital, Baghdad.
"This elimination could be considered a big success, albeit a tactical one, for the coalition forces in Iraq," said Mikhail Margelov, chairman of the upper chamber's committee for international affairs.
Zarqawi was considered to be one of the leaders the insurgency in Iraq and the U.S. had placed a $25 million bounty on his head. He was thought to have been involved in the abduction and murder of foreign workers.
But Margelov was pessimistic that Zarqawi's death would fundamentally damage the insurgency.
"The reason for the rampant terrorism in Iraq, a situation in which free travel around the capital of the country is impossible even for diplomats, is not down to the terrorist talents of one or another warlord," he said.
The Federation Council member added that intelligence sources indicated in April that Zarqawi had been replaced as al-Qaeda leader by an Iraqi called Abdullah bin Rashid al-Baghdadi and suggested that al-Qaeda was unlikely to experience a shortage in volunteers.
Margelov said the current crisis in Iraq was the result of the inability of authorities to establish basic order after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein.
