After success, next steps for US?

• Using Zarqawi's demise as an opening for more concrete overtures to the Sunni population, whom Zarqawi was trying to incite into waging war against the Shiite population.

• Redoubling efforts to clean up interior ministry and police forces.

• Initiating an Iraq investigation into alleged US military abuses against Iraqi civilians, with the goal of rebuilding trust between the two countries.

The major obstacle Cordesman sees is that the opportunity for some major advancement in the US project in Iraq comes just when the picture of what the US has done in Iraq so far is largely one of waste, lack of planning, and lost opportunities. He says a major stumbling block is that the US ambassador in Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, needs to make the case for spending more money in Iraq when the US is moving in the opposite direction.

"He's got to press for more resources" - for more and better police training, for more renovation of the Iraqi oil industry, says Cordesman.

Still, the US has to remain cautious about what the demise of one insurgent leader means, with some experts warning that the death of such a polarizing figure as Zarqawi could be a boost to the insurgency.

"The irony is that in a perverse way this could be a positive for the broader insurgency, if they are able to develop a more cohesive strategy out of it," says Hughes.

Indeed, an important reminder for the US may be that the insurgency is not monolithic, and that Zarqawi - a Jordanian - commanded only what is believed to have been a small fraction of insurgent forces. "This may or may not be a crippling blow to that small part of the insurgency he commanded, Al Qaeda in Iraq. But I don't see it affecting the intercommunal violence," says Patrick Lang, a former Defense Intelligence Agency specialist in the Middle East.

Zarqawi had mastered the Internet and was adept at using it to further his cause, through regular videos. His most recent video, which may have actually assisted in pinpointing his whereabouts, included a call to all-out sectarian war.

Removing so charismatic and seemingly untouchable a figure will help the US in its efforts to win both Iraqi and generally Muslim "hearts and minds," some analysts say. But Mr. Lang says a crucial lesson to be learned is how something like taking out Zarqawi is part of a process, and not an end that produces immediate results.

"You build up a capacity to acquire information that is better and better, and eventually you get payoffs like this," he says. "It's not so much a question of building on one event, but building up the process that made it possible."

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