Baghdad, Iraq ? In a further sign of the rifts emerging within Iraq’s insurgency, Jordanian-born militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has stepped aside as the head of a new council of radical groups in favor of an Iraqi, according to a posting on a Web site used by al-Qaida and other insurgent groups.

The statement, whose authenticity could not be independently verified, said Abdullah Rashid al-Baghdadi, “who is Iraqi,” had taken over from al-Zarqawi as “emir” of the new Mujahedeen Shura, or Council, which groups six extremist organizations including al-Qaida and whose creation was announced last week.

The formation of the council and the appointment of an Iraqi to lead it come at a time of deepening divisions within Iraq’s insurgency over ways to respond to the new realities of post-election Iraq and how to prepare for the day when U.S. troops start going home.

Most notably, some Iraqi nationalist insurgent groups are turning against al-Zarqawi and his foreign Arab volunteers, whose spectacular suicide bombings have served the insurgency’s goals well until now but whose Islamic extremism has come to be seen as a liability by rebels whose aim increasingly is to secure a role for Sunni Iraqis in the new political order.

A statement announcing the formation of the council a week ago, issued by al-Zarqawi’s chief spokesman, explained that the council’s purpose was to “unite the approach of the mujahedeen … in order to dismiss all the differences and disagreements and controversies,” an acknowledgement of the rifts that have opened up within the insurgency in recent months.

Though there was no way of independently verifying the information, the Web site is the main one used by al-Qaida in Iraq to post news, claims of responsibility and videotapes of attacks. Since the council was formed, the claims of responsibility that previously were posted by al-Qaida have been made in the name of the Mujahedeen Council.

On Friday, the site’s administrator named al-Baghdadi as the leader of the council, which comprises al-Qaida in Iraq, an affiliated group called the Victorious Sect Brigade, and four lesser-known allied groups. Leading Iraqi nationalist groups, such as Ansar al-Sunnah, the Islamic Army and the 20th Revolution Brigades, are not included.

A subsequent posting explained: “What Sheik Abu Musab did when giving up the title of Emir, this is a favor by the Emir of Slaughter to block the road to all those who say he is a foreigner.” The Emir of Slaughter is used by extremists to refer to al-Zarqawi, America’s most wanted man in Iraq with a $25 million bounty on his head.