Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is on the move, or at least that's the message he wants to send.
With Wednesday's attacks in his birthplace of Jordan, the al-Qaeda in Iraq chief signaled he has the capacity and desire to export his suicide-bombing campaign outside Iraq's borders.
Now, many in the already volatile Middle East worry his stated goals of toppling pro-American Arab rulers, erecting an Islamic caliphate and targeting Israel may be gaining momentum.
His threat is not new to the region, but the three fiery hotel blasts that killed 57 people in one of the Middle East's most secure cities sparked instant calls for regional and international efforts to fight terror.
Officials in Iraq repeated warnings that terrorism will only keep spreading in the Middle East, unless countries work harder to help Iraq end its raging insurgency.
Iraqi Defense Minister Saadoun al-Dulaimi warned Arab states that "if the Iraqi volcano explodes, no neighboring capital will be saved."
Most regional analysts and officials say they believe the US-led war in Iraq has in fact created and worsened -- not stamped out -- a breeding ground for terrorism.
"It's like a franchise operation. You have second-generation jihadist groups all across the world," US Senator Pat Roberts, a Republican from Kansas, said on Sunday. The threat that al-Zarqawi will set up terror fronts beyond Iraq's borders is "extremely serious."
In Iraq itself, violence continues despite repeated large-scale operations to try to wipe out terror strongholds. And the insurgency shows a level of resilience and even a spare capacity to send its forces abroad.
"Al-Zarqawi has proved a very fundamental point, that the Americans can't control al-Qaeda in Iraq," said Mustafa Alani, an Iraqi senior security analyst with the Dubai-based Gulf Research Center.
"Iraq is no longer a magnet attracting terrorism, but it is now exporting terrorist forces," he said.
Significantly, al-Zarqawi demonstrated with the Amman attacks that he has at least some Iraqis, and not just foreign fighters, on his side.
The three suicide bombers who died in the Grand Hyatt, Radisson SAS and Days Inn attacks were Iraqis, as was the wife of one of the men, who failed in her bid to blow herself up and was arrested on Sunday.
Some, however, cast doubt on whether al-Zarqawi had the ability to wage a wider war and whether the Amman attacks were a sign of worse to come.
"One event does not mark a trend, and Jordanian security repeatedly blocked prior attack attempts," said Anthony Cordesman, a military analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
"It is also important to note that it is far from clear that al-Zarqawi has a broad network," he said.
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