"Now we hope we will have peace," said Adul-Wahid Khalil, a teacher in Mosul, Iraq. And with that short sentence, the 30-year-old, speaking to AP, captured the sentiment of an entire country following the death of al-Qaida top terrorist Musab al-Zarqawi on Wednesday night after a US bomb hit the house he was in. The attack came following a long operation aimed at locating Zarqawi by tracking his spiritual advisor  Sheik Abd al-Rahman.

The news of Zarqawi's death has been welcomed both across the globe with world leaders hopeful that the demise of the most brutal of terrorists in Iraq may lead to a period of stability in the war-torn country. The parliamentary approval of Iraq Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's nominations for defense minister and interior minister on Thursday served to underline such optimism.

Combined, the two events resulted in "a stunning shock to the al-Qaida system," said US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld on Thursday.

Still, back-slapping has been kept to a minimum as officials from the US and elsewhere have sought to dampen hopes that Zarqawi's death might mark the beginning of the end of the Iraqi insurgency. "Zarqawi is dead, but the difficult and necessary mission in Iraq continues," said Bush on Thursday at the White House. "We can expect the terrorists and insurgents to carry on without him."

As if to highlight the subdued reaction, Iraqi officials on Friday imposed a traffic ban in both the capital of Baghdad and in the town of Baquba, which is located near where Zarqawi was killed on Wednesday. Officials are worried about reprisal attacks during midday when Iraqis will be attending mosque for Friday prayers. On Thursday, a rash of bombings in Baghdad killed nearly 40 people in the capital and wounded dozens more. Thirteen were killed at a fruit market when a bomb detonated at the entrance.

Indeed, many analysts weren't exactly sure what to make of Zarqawi's death. The US had made much of the al-Qaida man, painting him as the leader of the bloody Iraqi insurgency, but many say that his role may have been overstated. "Most of the insurgency will not be affected, because al-Qaida is a highly visible and extraordinarily brutal cadre within a much larger group of different insurgent movements," Anthony Cordesman, a former Pentagon analyst, told the AP. "These groups will not be directly affected by Zarqawi's death and could be strengthened if his death weakens al-Qaida."

French terrorism expert Dominique Thomas agreed and told the AP that al-Qaida may even try to step up attacks to prove that it survived Zarqawi. "While Zarqawi's death is a symbolic gain for the Americans, I don't think we'll see a real change on the ground," he said.

Ominously for Iraq, while news of Zarqawi's death was cause for celebration among Shiites in much of the country, the terrorist was mourned in the country's Anbar Province -- a center of the Sunni-led insurgency. "This is a black day in Ramadi. This is a great loss for all the Sunnis," 40-year-old worker Abid al-Duleimi told the AP. Zarqawi was also mourned on the Internet, where a number of Islamist sites lamented his passing. A statement purportedly from Taliban leader Mullah Omar appeared on Friday as well in which he says he is "deeply sad over the martyrdom of Abu Masab al-Zarqawi." He vowed to continue fighting, however, and wrote "I want to assure the Muslims across the world that we will not stop our struggle against crusaders in Afghanistan." The authenticity of the statement has not yet been confirmed.