In January 2006 , AQI joined with several smaller Iraqi Sunni insurgent groups under an umbrella organisation called the Mujahideen Shura Council ( MSC ) . According to counterterrorism researcher Brian Fishman , the merger was an attempt to give the group a more Iraqi flavour , and perhaps to distance al-Qaeda from some of al-Zarqawi 's tactical errors , such as the 2005 bombings by AQI of three hotels in Amman . On 7 June 2006 , a US airstrike killed al-Zarqawi , who was succeeded as leader of the group by the Egyptian militant Abu Ayyub al-Masri
2005 bombings
2005 Amman bombings
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant