Terrorists on the run in Iraq
Omar Fadhil from the Iraq the Model blog has a piece up today at the Wall Street Journal that talks about indications that the terrorists are losing in Iraq:
BAGHDAD–The latest chapter in al Qaeda’s war manual in their war against the Iraqi people and the Coalition is this: raiding remote peaceful villages, burning down homes and slaughtering both man and beast. It’s a campaign of self destruction.
For about a year al Qaeda has been trying to build a so called Islamic State in Iraq. On several occasions al Qaeda has even declared parts of Baghdad or other places in other provinces the capital of this Islamic State.
But now that they are losing one base after another, their objective seems to have changed from adding more towns and villages to the “state” to destroying the very same towns and villages. Obviously, it’s all about making headlines regardless of the means to do that.
This change in plans began to take shape with the battle between al Qaeda and the joint forces on Sept. 6 and 7 in Hor Rijab and then the massacre that followed in the same spot a week later and finally the attacks on other villages north, south and east of Baghdad in the last week or so.
Actually first I’d like to recommend reading a good post by Jules Crittenden about the flawed timing of this “Little Tet.
Anyway, our interest today is more about the field situation and strategy than about timing since the latter seems to be not so friendly to al Qaeda. Well, actually timing is very important here too but at a rather different level. In my opinion al Qaeda found itself forced to start this villages war. It wasn’t a choice as much as a last resort because villages are among the few fighting spaces that al Qaeda can still utilize as large cities become increasingly difficult for them to operate in. They know that without engaging the enemy–that’s us by the way–their existence and influence would end and I’m almost positive that they feel bitter about having to fight this way.
Read the whole thing.
And speaking of Al Qaeda, Nathan Helms has an eye-opening report in which he talks about a Marine Corps intelligence summary that suggested Haditha was “an intentional propaganda ploy planned and paid for by Al Qaeda foreign fighters”:
The report – apparently overlooked by a Washington press corps awash in leaked Bargewell documents and secret Naval Criminal Investigative Service reports – shows that Marine Corps intelligence operatives were advised of the scheme to demonize the Marines by an informant named Muhannad Hassan Hamadi. The informant was snared by 3/1 Marines on December 11 2005 and decided to cooperate.
Planning a “massacre”
The attack was carried out by multiple cells of local Wahabi extremists and well-paid local gunmen from Al Asa’ib al-Iraq [the Clans of the People of Iraq] that were led by Al Qaeda foreign fighters, the summary claims. Their case was bolstered by Marine signal intercepts revealing that the al Qaeda fighters planned to videotape the attacks and exploit the resulting carnage for propaganda purposes.
Eleven insurgents involved in the attack are identified by name and affiliation in the details of the summary. All of them were killed or captured in the days immediately following the Haditha incident.
During the November Haditha battle, the insurgents secreted themselves among local civilians to guarantee pursuing Marines would catch innocent civilians in the ensuing crossfire. On January 6, 2006 six insurgents who tried to do the same thing at another location in Haditha were turned in to Coalition authorities before they could mount a similar assault, the report says.
Hat tip: Michelle Malkin via ST reader Fat Tone.
PM Update: Make sure to check out Michael J. Totten’s latest: The Best Police Force in Iraq.