'Today Zarqawi has been killed,' al-Maliki told a press conference in Baghdad on Thursday. Reports said the terrorist, who owed his allegiance to Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda, was killed in an air raid near Baghdad.

Al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian, has claimed responsibility for some of the most high-profile suicide bombings in Iraq, and also for a score of other attacks including hotel bombings last November in Jordan.

Even as coalition leaders were hailing his death, Al Zarqawi’s sister said she prayed that the mujahideen in Iraq get an even more powerful leader. (Something rediff.com columnist B Raman pointed out.)

Though it is still unclear as to who will succeed Al Zarqawi, several militant Web forums were flooded with messages of well wishers pledging to hear and obey the man they claimed was the new 'emir', or leader, of al-Qaeda in Iraq: Abu Abdul Rahman al Iraqi.

Meanwhile, the US military said the most logical successor as Abu al Masri.

Al Masri was believed to have come to Iraq in 2002 after training in Afghanistan. He was also believed to be an expert at constructing roadside bombs.

Image: A US soldier carries a picture of al-Qaeda leader in Iraq Abu Musab al-Zarqawi during a US military briefing.

Photograph: AHMAD AL-RUBAYE/AFP/Getty Images

Also See:
Zarqawi dead, but war on terror goes on
Zarqawi at par with Osama
The man terrorising Iraq