Jordanian-born al Qaeda militant Abu Musab Zarqawi has been replaced as head of the terrorist organization in Iraq in a bid to put an Iraqi figure at the head of the group's struggle, said a leading Islamist.

But terrorism specialists were divided on whether the move represented a demotion for the figure most closely identified with a wave of suicide bombings and beheadings or a move by Zarqawi to focus his efforts on a larger regional war.

Huthayafa Azzam, whose father is seen as a political mentor of al Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden, told reporters in Jordan over the weekend that Zarqawi, who has not made a public statement in months, was no longer the head of al Qaeda in Iraq and that his role "has been limited to military action."

Azzam, who claims close contacts with leading insurgents inside Iraq, said Zarqawi had "made many political mistakes," including kidnappings and beheadings that sparked popular revulsion and unauthorized operations outside Iraq, such as the November bombing of a Jordanian hotel.

"The resistance command inside and outside Iraq, including imams, criticized [Zarqawi] and after long discussions demanded that he be confined to military action," Azzam told the Associated Press and other news outlets.

U.S. military officials in Baghdad have put a $25 million bounty on Zarqawi's head, and talked as recently as last week of the Jordanian terrorist's leading role and of attacks thought to be carried out by his group, al Qaeda in Iraq.

Reports that Zarqawi had been shunted aside are "nothing we can verify," Lt. Col. Barry Johnson told reporters in Baghdad yesterday...