Al-Qaeda Losing Credibility on the Arab Street

From BBC News:

"But actions such as the Amman bombing of the wedding tend to undermine mainstream support that al-Qaeda might have had. . . . hundreds of people [protesting against] Zarqawi. . . But the way to measure this [is in] public reporting on the mili-tants to the police. That has happened a lot in Saudi Arabia — the tide of public opinion there has turned largely against al-Qaeda because so many Saudis have been killed by their ac-tions."

According to Knight-Ridder, "Al-Qaida in Iraq. . . has broken with local Sunni Muslim Arab insurgent groups in central Iraq, in some cases resulting in gun battles on the street. . . . the break started in the summer, when al-Qaida in Iraq started killing police. . . breaking an insurgent agreement to let the officers do their jobs."

Zarqawi becoming a pariah on the street? Now he knows how George Bush feels.