War Blog
By FrontPage Magazine
FrontPageMagazine.com | April 30, 2007
GOOD NEWS IN ANBAR
By Ed Morrissey
Just as the Democrats have raised the white flag on Iraq, the New York Times reports that the surge strategy has started paying off in Anbar. Shops have reopened, people have moved back, and everyone's challenging the insurgents except Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi (via Memeorandum):
Anbar Province, long the lawless heartland of the tenacious Sunni Arab resistance, is undergoing a surprising transformation. Violence is ebbing in many areas, shops and schools are reopening, police forces are growing and the insurgency appears to be in retreat.
“Many people are challenging the insurgents,” said the governor of Anbar, Maamoon S. Rahid, though he quickly added, “We know we haven’t eliminated the threat 100 percent.”
Many Sunni tribal leaders, once openly hostile to the American presence, have formed a united front with American and Iraqi government forces against Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia. With the tribal leaders’ encouragement, thousands of local residents have joined the police force. About 10,000 police officers are now in Anbar, up from several thousand a year ago. During the same period, the police force here in Ramadi, the provincial capital, has grown from fewer than 200 to about 4,500, American military officials say.
At the same time, American and Iraqi forces have been conducting sweeps of insurgent strongholds, particularly in and around Ramadi, leaving behind a network of police stations and military garrisons, a strategy that is also being used in Baghdad, Iraq’s capital, as part of its new security plan.
Life has not yet returned to normal, nor even close to it. Infrastructure still has yet to be rebuilt, and the loyalty of America's new allies still remains uncertain. What does appear certain is that this former stronghold of Ba'athist resentment no longer wants to exist in a cycle of oppression, liberation, and destruction. They want to end the fighting by eliminating the insurgents.
The question will be whether they stick with that in the face of an imminent American withdrawal. It has taken four years for Anbar to understand that Sunni domination in Iraq has ended and will not return, neither in the guise of Saddam Hussein nor in a military junta ruled by Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, the chief Ba'athist dead-ender. Now that they have finally pulled together with the US to oppose the increasingly lunatic al-Qaeda terrorists, we have lost the will to fight the insurgents ourselves -- or at least Congress has.
Government buildings and hotels are being rebuilt in Ramadi. Even the New York Times reports that violence has swiftly fallen in the region. Last summer, Ramadi had 25 terrorist attacks a day, and now it has dropped to four -- still too many, but with the expanded police force holding territory for the first time since the liberation, the momentum has clearly shifted. American troops have turned to civil-affairs work, trying to kick-start the rebuilding effort that will secure some semblance of peace among the Sunnis.
The growing security forces rely on the Americans to assist them in getting the terrorists that everyone wants driven out of Iraq. Without us, they would have to sue for terms with the AQI lunatics that would have them divided and fighting amongst themselves. If we leave now, we will destroy all of the work we have done to reach this point -- when even the Times acknowledges that we have finally begun to set the stage for success in Anbar and elsewhere in Iraq. Sunday, April 29, 2007
www.captainsquartersblog.com
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IRAQ REPORT: MAJOR OPERATION AGAINST AQI NETWORK, SADR'S SILENCE
By Bill Roggio
Today was yet another relatively quiet day inside Baghdad. There were no major, mass casualty bombings, the largest acts of violence was a roadside bomb which killed two. The U.S. Army launched an artillery barrage at targets in "a known Sunni stronghold" but there is no further information on the targets or casualties.
Coalition forces - also known as Task Force 145, the hunter killer teams assigned to dismantle al Qaeda command cells - conducted a "massive synchronized effort" against al Qaeda in Iraq's network nationwide. Seventy-two al Qaeda operatives were detained during raids in Anbar province and Salahadin provinces. Thirty-six al Qaeda were captured in the city of Samarra, while "20 five-gallon drums of nitric acid and other bomb-making materials" were found near the insurgent riddled city of Karma in Anbar. The Iraqi Ministry of Defense announced that it killed 2 insurgents and detained 112 during operations across Iraq over the past 24 hours.
U.S. and Iraqi forces are maintaining the pressure on Muqtada al Sadr and his Mahdi Army. Today, a U.S. force raided a Sadr office in the Kadhmiya district, and arrested those inside. A gunfight ensued but there is no word of casualties. Yesterday, Coalition forces captured 4 Mahdi Army fighters in Sadr city, and on Thursday, Coalition forces killed three Mahdi militiamen during a running gun battle inside Sadr City. The operation targeted "a network that trains terrorists for operations in Iraq."
Last year, each and every raid inside Sadr city or against a Mahdi Army target created a political crisis for Prime Minister Maliki's embattled government. Since the beginning of the Baghdad Security Plan and Sadr's subsequent flight from Iraq, the Coalition and Iraqi military have operated unchecked against Sadr's political front and the Mahdi Army. Raids such as those conducted against Sadr's backers have failed to elicit a response from Sadr's political apparatus. Sunday, April 29, 2007
SENIOR AL QAEDA OPERATIVE ABD AL-HADI AL-IRAQI CAPTURED
By Bill Roggio
Osama bin Laden deputy in custody at Guantanamo Bay
The United States has scored a major victory against al Qaeda's global network. Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi, one of Osama bin Laden's senior deputies who was "personally chosen by bin Laden to monitor al Qaeda operations in Iraq," has been captured and transfered to the detention center at Guantanamo Bay. The U.S. government put a $1 million bounty out for Al-Hadi's capture.
It is unknown as to who captured Abd al-Hadi, or where or when he was captured. "'Abd al-Hadi was trying to return to his native country, Iraq, to manage al Qaeda's affairs and possibly focus on operations outside Iraq against Western targets," according to the Department of Defense. "'Abd al-Hadi also met with al Qaeda members in Iran and believed that they should be doing more with the fight, including supporting efforts in Iraq and causing problems within Iran." Last year, Coalition forces captured senior al Qaeda operative Omar Farouq in Basra after he left Afghanistan to plan operations inside Iraq.
Abd al-Hadi was al Qaeda's Internal Operations Chief and served as an instructor as well as the commander of several al Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan. He was a major in Saddam Hussein's Army prior to going to Afghanistan to fight the Soviet Union in the 1980s (his real name is Nashwan Abdulrazaq Abdulbaqi and he was born in Mosul in 1961). Al-Hadi also served on al Qaeda's "ruling Shura Council — a now-defunct 10-person advisory body to Osama Bin Ladin — as well as the group's Military Committee, which oversaw terrorist and guerrilla operations and paramilitary training."
While in Pakistan, Abd al-Hadi directed cross-border military operations against U.S. and Afghan forces in Afghanistan. Abd al-Hadi also served as a conduit between al Qaeda in Iraq, the Taliban and al Qaeda senior command operating inside Pakistan. He was behind the assassination attempts against Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf.
Video of Abd Al-Hadi Al-Iraqi firing a MANPADS missile at a US warplane in Afghanistan. Click to view.
"'Abd al-Hadi was known and trusted by Bin Ladin and Ayman al-Zawahiri," notes the Department of Defense. He was "in direct communication with both leaders and, at one point, was Zawahiri's caretaker. 'Abd al-Hadi also interacted with other senior al Qaeda planners and decision makers, such as Khalid Shaykh Muhammad and Abu Faraj al-Libi, and deceased al Qaeda members Hamza Rabi'a and 'Abd al-Rahman al-Muhajir." Al-Hadi is listed on Executive Order 13224 as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist.
A recently leaked British intelligence report indicated Al-Hadi was planning a major attack against Britain prior to Prime minister Tony Blair steps down from office this spring. A letter captured by British intelligence from Al-Hadi “stressed the need to take care to ensure that the attack was successful and on a large scale... The plan was to be relayed to an Iran-based Al-Qaeda facilitator." Abd al-Hadi is also said to be one of the masterminds behind the 7/7 London Tubes bombing in 2006.
Al-Hadi's capture and subsequent interrogation will likely yield significant intelligence on al Qaeda's global operations, and specifically operations in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran. Al-Hadi was a vital link in al Qaeda's global network, who possesses knowledge on al Qaeda's training, communications, personal ties and operations in the critical theaters of Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq. Al-Hadi's knowledge of al Qaeda's command structure inside Pakistan will be of particular interest, as the U.S. believes Osama bin Laden, Ayman al Zawahiri and other al Qaeda senior leaders are operating from command centers in Waziristan and Bajaur. Friday, April 27, 2007
billroggio.com
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'THE EFFECT ON THE TALIBAN HAS BEEN DRAMATIC'
By Ed Morrissey
The London Telegraph reports on a new tactical aggressiveness from American troops in Afghanistan which has the Taliban rocked back on its heels and unable to press forward with its expect spring offensive. The new tactics involve the heavy use of helicopter gunships and a merciless push to finish engagements. A senior Taliban commander has found exactly what that means (via Hot Air):
Caught in the middle of the Helmand river, the fleeing Taliban were paddling their boat back to shore for dear life.
Smoke from the ambush they had just sprung on American special forces still hung in the air, but their attention was fixed on the two helicopter gunships that had appeared above them as their leader, the tallest man in the group, struggled to pull what appeared to be a burqa over his head.
As the boat reached the shore, Captain Larry Staley tilted the nose of the lead Apache gunship downwards into a dive. One of the men turned to face the helicopter and sank to his knees. Capt Staley's gunner pressed the trigger and the man disappeared in a cloud of smoke and dust.
By the time the gunships had finished, 21 minutes later, military officials say 14 Taliban were confirmed dead, including one of their key commanders in Helmand.
The mission is typical of a new, aggressive, approach adopted by American forces in southern Afghanistan and particularly in Helmand, where British troops last year bore the brunt of some of the heaviest fighting since the fall of the Taliban in 2001.
The Teleghraph includes a video presentation that should be seen as a companion to the article. In it, the narrator says that "the effect on the Taliban has been dramatic," and it certainly was in this case. The commander who died in this engagement was Mul;ah Najibullah, a commander in the original Taliban who eluded us in 2001. He had been an official in Mullah Omar's government in Afghanistan prior to getting ejected in the American invasion after 9/11.
American troops no longer break off engagements when Taliban guerillas start to flee. The British had been hard pressed in Helmand up to now, but as the Telegraph reports, they partly caused their own problems. British commanders had offered cease-fires in Helmand to allow for the Taliban to end the fighting and work with the Coalition, but all it did was to allow the Taliban to regroup and seize positions. The new American commander has put an end to all cease-fires, and has ordered constant pressure on the terrorists.
As a result, the Taliban have found it impossible to mount an offensive. They have tried raids and ambushes, but the superior firepower and the ability to get into the air makes ambushes a trap for the attackers. As this raid demonstrates, any gains made in raids last for moments, and the raiders and their commanders pay with their lives -- and gain nothing.
The reporter says that the success or failure of the Taliban depends on their response to the gunships. However, it goes deeper than that. The success or failure of the Taliban depends on the commitment to fight to the last on the part of the Coalition. Now that we have started to do that, the Taliban cannot possibly hope to dislodge American and British forces. One cannot be merciful to terrorists and hope to prevail, and the Coalition may finally have learned that lesson. |
