There have been several interesting posts on various blogs concerning the importance of the killing of Abu Azzam whom press reports indicated he was second in command of Al Qaida in Iraq. Most of the posts concerning Azzam have indicated he is not second in command which goes back to a flow chart written by terrorism analyst Evan Kohlman (downloadable here).

According to Kohlman’s chart, Abu Azzam is listed but he is not in the central bracket of Al Qaida in Iraq officers meaning he certainly would not be second in command. He is however an important catch.

The Observer Research Foundation writes an interesting article concerning where Azzam was in comparison to the other 29 most wanted men by the Iraqi government that is well worth a read. The author does not come to any conclusion per se, but he does lay the groundwork for stating that while the killing of Azzam was well worth it, he is hardly the groundbreaking killing announced.

The way Al Qaida in Iraq is structured, as best I can tell from various communiques, killings, capturings, etc. is that Zarqawi has an inner structure of trusted confidants. This inner circle is very small, but the inner circle which travels with Zarqawi is much, much smaller. He has appointed regional commanders which in turn have appointed smaller commanders which in turn have appointed smaller commanders. Zarqawi has organized Al Qaida in Iraq in a similar fashion to the U.S. military in this respects.

Therefore, Azzam may have been the Al Qaida leader of a particular province, but most likely one of his cronnies will step into the job. Like I’ve stated before however, each link in the chain that gets busted gets replaced by a weaker link.

Hat tip: Hyscience who notes a Newsweek story on Azzam