Operations against al-Qaeda Iraq in 2007 resulted in the capture of 8,800 terrorists and 2,400 were killed.
90% of Suicide Bombers in Iraq Are Foreign Born
Here’s news for Democrats who want to surrender Iraq to go fight Al-Qaeda—
The majority of foreign terrorists enter Iraq to carry out suicide attacks, signing a pledge that formally commits them to that duty. Over 90% of suicide bombers are foreign terrorists, and these high profile attacks account for a large majority of the Iraqi losses inflicted by al-Qaeda. (MNF-Iraq)
Rear Adm. Gregory Smith, Multi-National Force -Iraq’s Communication Division- announced yesterday that despite the great success in operations sinc the Bush Surge went into effect, Al-Qaeda in Iraq continues to be the most lethal enemy.
MNF-Iraq reported:
Al-Qaeda senior leadership, who by that time had been driven into northwestern Pakistan, saw Iraq as its caliphate, its center of struggle and dominance for establishing its Taliban-like ideology in the heart of the Arab world.
Al-Qaeda Iraq is foreign led, with its current leader an Egyptian named Abu Ayyub al-Masri, having replaced the previous leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian who was killed in June 2006. The vast majority of the senior leadership are all foreigners. The most senior Iraqi, Khalid al-Mashadani, was captured in July 2007 and provided considerable insight into how al-Qaeda Iraq was organized.
Of course the vast majority of the fighters are Iraqis, many whom were loyal to Saddam and who fought not because they believed in the twisted ideology of al-Qaeda, but to avenge the loss of their former leader. Some of course had little choice as the insurgency destroyed the economy and pride drove their allegiance to al-Qaeda in order to put food on their family’s tables.
Al-Qaeda Iraq used the most barbaric of tactics, which I will discuss in more detail shortly, to intimidate Shi’a, Sunni, Kurds and Christians. They executed young and old, men and women. They beheaded fathers in front of their children. They extorted, kidnapped and murdered for little or no reason. To even the most casual observer, it appeared that all of Iraq was the enemy of al-Qaeda, no Iraqi was spared from their wrath.
A major weapon of al-Qaeda has been the suicide bomber, ninety percent who were foreigners. The suicide bomber became the spark that ignited ethno-sectarian violence and drew all of Iraq into a near civil war. So let me now turn to how the picture looked at the start of 2007.
This map represents al-Qaeda Iraq’s presence in December of 2006. Dark red represents what we assessed at that time as their operating areas … areas where they had some level of freedom of movement and sanctuary to conduct their operations from … and the lighter red represents areas of population influence. The image on the bottom right is a hand drawn map captured early last year, outlining al-Qaeda’s strategy to overtake Baghdad by controlling first the outer belts then Baghdad itself. (MNF-Iraq)
Al-Qaeda’s dominance in Iraq was diminished considerably over the last year.
Overall, operations against al-Qaeda Iraq in 2007 resulted in the capture of 8,800 terrorists while an additional 2,400 were killed. Of those, we captured or killed 52 Emirs, 32 Improvised Explosive Device leaders, 24 cell leaders, and 92 facilitators. (MNF-Iraq)
In 2007 militant incidences declined 70-90%, assassinations declined by 79% and kidnappings by 72%- Buratha News.
UPDATE: More Good News… The United Nations’ chief envoy acknowledged the recent improvements both in the security and political situation in Iraq.
Reuters reported:
Reasons for the reduced level of violence included the increased presence of U.S. and other troops, a ceasefire declared by Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr’s Mehdi Army militia and increased cooperation with Iraq’s neighbors, he said…
The U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Zalmay Khalilzad, also described an improved security situation, which he said was partly the result of the “surge” of 30,000 additional troops Washington sent last year.
But he accused neighboring Syria and Iran of not keeping promises to do more to stop violent attacks in Iraq.
