Who is al-Zarqawi?

Americablog has an interesting post up about a story in the Independent that claims Zarqawi was basically a nobody until the U.S. set out to make him the boogeyman during the lead-up to the invasion of Iraq. Not being all that knowledgeable about the workings of the terrorist world, I can't say whether that's true or not, but it might well raise more questions about just how big a deal his death is.