Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was a Jordanian-born Iraqi militant and the founder of the al-Tawhid wal-Jihad. In his teens, he plunged into a world of drugs, street violence, and alcohol. Later, he joined a local Islamist magazine in Afghanistan. He then went to Pakistan, where, along with Muhammad al-Maqdisi, he formed Bayat al-Imam to unite Jordanian Afghan fighters. After the fall of Kabul, he and Maqdisi were arrested and jailed in Jordan. He was later released and took help from Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda to form his own terror organization, the Jama'at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad. Though his initial aim was to oust the Jordanian monarchy, he deviated later. He helped the al-Qaeda enter Iraq through Syria. He led numerous car-bomb blasts, beheadings of foreigners, and explosions near Shiite mosques. He was eventually killed in a U.S. air strike in 2006.
