“The terror campaign led by [al Qaeda in Iraq leader] Abu Masab al-Zarqawi in Iraq from 2003 to [his death on June 7] 2006 allowed jihadist fighters to…give the entire world the impression that a lasting, if not eternal, jihad had been unleashed. On the international level, this will probably be Zarqawi’s legacy. On the Iraqi domestic scene…it will be that Zarqawi…ignited and fueled a civil war with religious overtones between Shiites and Sunnis.”
– Gilles Kepel and Jean-Pierre Milelli, eds., Al Qaeda In Its Own Words, Page 237