The New York Times publishes the announcement by Gen. George Casey at a press conference alongside U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad and Iraqi Prime Minister Jawad al-Maliki:

???????Ladies and Gentlemen, Coalition Forces killed al-Qaida terrorist leader Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi and one of his key lieutenants, spiritual advisor Sheik Abd-Al-Rahman, yesterday, June 7, at 6:15 p.m. in an air strike against an identified, isolated safe house.

???????Tips and intelligence from Iraqi senior leaders from his network led forces to al-Zarqawi and some of his associates who were conducting a meeting approximately eight kilometers north of Baqubah when the air strike was launched.

???????Iraqi police were first on the scene after the air strike, and elements of Multi-National Division North, arrived shortly thereafter. Coalition Forces were able to identify al-Zarqawi by fingerprint verification, facial recognition and known scars.

Al-Zarqawi and al-Qaida in Iraq have conducted terrorist activities against the Iraqi people for years in attempts to undermine the Iraqi national government and Coalition efforts to rebuild and stabilize Iraq. He is known to be responsible for the deaths of thousands of Iraqis.

Al-Zarqawi????????s death is a significant blow to al-Qaida and another step toward defeating terrorism in Iraq.

???????Although the designated leader of al-Qaida in Iraq is now dead, the terrorist organization still poses a threat as its members will continue to try to terrorize the Iraqi people and destabilize their government as it moves toward stability and prosperity. Iraqi forces, supported by the Coalition, will continue to hunt terrorists that threaten the Iraqi people until terrorism is eradicated in Iraq.???????

Zarqawi, since the beginning of Al Qaeda in Iraq, has been the both the organization’s military as well as symbolic figurehead, much like Osama bin Laden before he became acquainted with the walls of a cave. Despite his strategic mistakes over the past three years, more than anything he has become a legend a legend. Invincible. The Americans could never catch him. He’d make it out of Fallujah just in time, losing the helicopters under an overpass; or he’d leave the safehouse just hours before a raid; or he’d cross the border, only to return a week later. He masterminded hundreds of suicide bombings and kidnappings all over the country, yet despite his extensive network, no one had ever seen him. Iraqi knew him by his actions, nothing else.

He was killed in Diyala, where just days ago the heads of several Sunni Arabs were found in fruit boxes in a back alley. They have been the base by which Zarqawi has waged his guerilla insurgency, but his favor has worn this. The majority Shia Arabs have gained the most power in the new Iraq, with some groups sending death squads to hunt down possible Sunni fighters. Thousands are being slaughtered extrajudicially, with their hands tied behind their backs, and their heads blindfolded and blasted from behind. The price of joining Zarqawi, especially in the past few months, has become too high. So they have turned on him. It should not be surprising that it was probably one of his own, in a city where Sunnis are experiencing retaliation for the past years’ killings, that gave him in.

Al Qaeda in Iraq will not go away because of this. There is already an organizational structure in place with the Shura Council that will continue to plot against the new democratic Iraq. But the death of his symbolism will have a major impact on the rest of the fighters. If the invincible can be found and killed, they certainly will be as well. The blow this deals to the foreign jihadis will be more intense than for anyone else, as the Sunnis are already rejecting the resistance.

The death will not stop here either. Even if Al Qaeda and whatever is left of its Sunni support faded completely, the Iran-backed Shia death squads are going to continue their rampage until they are stopped. The new prime minister’s reputation as a security hardliner will get a boost from Zarqawi’s assassination, so he may actually have the ability to secure the trust of the Sunnis while combating the militias loyal to parties within his own alliance. If they aren’t stopped, the Sunnis will have to remain ready to kill back. Furthermore, the one thing that all sides want — for the Americans to leave — will be delayed for as long as the two are trading tit-for-tat exchanges of fire.

For now, the legend is dead. Zarqawi will not be a martyr for anyone because any potential recruits will fear the same fate and just about everyone else — Sunni and Shia alike — have come to hate who he is, what he has done, and what he represents. In Iraq’s current environment, he wouldn’t have lasted much longer anyway. In time, the cause that he represented will die the same death as well.