Excellent News From Iraq Post Zarqawi

[Annie]

Links at site:

http://austinbay.net/blog/?p=1189

6/15/2006
After Zarqawi– raids kill 104 insurgents/Iraqi gov: AQ planned to use Iran-US confrontation

According to the AP, Multi-National Force (MNF) Iraq said that Iraqi and coalition forces have killed 104 insurgents in raids conducted since the succesful counter-terror strike that killed Al Qaeda’s Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

The AP also reports:

143 [of the raids] were carried out by Iraqi forces alone. The raids also resulted in the captures of 759 “anti-Iraqi elements.”
​

The short AP article covers this morning’s press statements by MG William Caldwell (MNF, Baghdad).

Maliki’s new Iraqi government is seizing both the political opportunity and the military/security opportunity created by Zarqawi’s death.

Read this CNN report on an Iraqi government claim that Al Qaeda intends to exploit US and Iranian “hostilities.” The Iraqi government says the information came from computer files (on hard drives, thumb drives, etc) found after the raid on Zarqawi. (CNN says it cannot confirm the claim. That’s interesting. I don’t recall CNN adding that caveat when Eason Jordan kept the CNN Baghdad bureau open during Saddam Hussein’s rule.) :teeth:

Key excerpt:

Such plans included the delivery of threatening messages attributed to Shiite Iranians and the carrying out of attacks under the guise of Iranian collusion, the Iraqi government cited the documents as saying.

Al Qaeda in Iraq also considered planting information that Iran has ties to terror groups, has been in possession of weapons of mass destruction, and is attempting to carry out terror operations in the West, the documents said, according to the Iraqi government.​

Read the entire report.

The Iraqi government statement does several things. It emphasizes Al Qaeda’s desperation in Iraq (”bleak” is what CNN quotes the spokesman as saying). The Iraqi statement puts Iran on notice as well– we’re watching you. However, it also gives Iran a way to “save face” if Tehran’s mullahs decide to quit supporting radical Shia militias (why, Al Qaeda did it…).

 

[Bonnie]

Links at site:

http://austinbay.net/blog/?p=1189

Imagine that, Al Qaeda is losing and they admit as much.

Imagine if Bush had listened to all the liberals who said pull out.