ZARQA, Jordan (Reuters) - In the bleak Jordanian city where Abu Musab al-Zarqawi grew up, shocked relatives mourned the al Qaeda leader's death as a loss to Islam and prayed for 1,000 "Zarqawis" to fight the Americans in his place. "This is a tragedy. We are all sad here," said Zarqawi's uncle, Yazm Khalayleh, 64.
"We have to be sad because he was fighting the infidels. Anyone who says he is not sad is lying; people believe he is a martyr. We do not want to believe that he is dead."
Zarqawi, the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, was killed in a U.S. air raid there, Iraqi and U.S. officials said on Thursday.
The Jordanian, who masterminded hundreds of suicide bombings in Iraq and was blamed for the videotaped beheadings of foreign hostages, had come to symbolise the radical Islamic insurgency against U.S.-led forces occupying Iraq.
Relatives and neighbors hailed Zarqawi as a hero of Islam and hoped his death would not impede the insurgency in Iraq.
"God willing there will be 1,000 Zarqawis to fight the Americans," another relative, Ahmed Khalayleh, told Reuters.
