Somehow, the fact that we are supposed to be fighting Al Qaeda and in fact are, in Iraq, perhaps escapes you.
Somehow the fact that the insurgency is an Iraqi insurgency escapes you:
Among Insurgents in Iraq, Few Foreigners Are Found
By Jonathan Finer
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, November 17, 2005; Page A01
BAGHDAD -- Before 8,500 U.S. and Iraqi soldiers methodically swept through Tall Afar two months ago in the year's largest counterinsurgency offensive, commanders described the northern city as a logistics hub for fighters, including foreigners entering the country from Syria, 65 miles to the west.
"They come across the border and use Tall Afar as a base to launch attacks across northern Iraq," Col. H.R. McMaster, commander of the Army's 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, which led the assault, said in a briefing the day before it began.
When the air and ground operation wound down in mid-September, nearly 200 insurgents had been killed and close to 1,000 detained, the military said at the time. But interrogations and other analyses carried out in recent weeks showed that none of those captured was from outside Iraq. According to McMaster's staff, the 3rd Armored Cavalry last detained a foreign fighter in June.
washingtonpost.com
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