U.S. official: Al Qaeda's No. 2 in Iraq killed

[Sarge]

One more arsehole roasting in hell

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/09/26/iraq.main/index.html

U.S. official: Al Qaeda's No. 2 in Iraq killed

Insurgents dressed as police kill six teachers

Monday, September 26, 2005; Posted: 10:26 p.m. EDT (02:26 GMT)

A U.S. soldier investigates a bombing in Baghdad that killed at least seven Iraqis.

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A man believed to be al Qaeda's No. 2 operative in Iraq was killed Monday afternoon, a U.S. official confirmed to CNN.

Abu Azzam was a "significant" figure in the al Qaeda network in Iraq, the official said. Additional details about his death were not immediately available.

Earlier Monday, a U.S. Marine commander told CNN that additional U.S. and Iraqi forces have been deployed to Anbar province to deal with the stubborn insurgency in the Euphrates River valley.

"The buildup is driven by the fact that intelligence pulls us where the threat is," said Col. Stephen Davis, commander of the Marines Regimental Combat Team 2. "We always go where the intel drives us."

Military officials believe more than 1,000 insurgents operate in the 30,000-square-mile region bound by the Euphrates River and the borders of Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Syria, Davis said.

The insurgents comprise "homegrown" elements, tribal groups and foreign fighters -- many affiliated with terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Davis said.

Al-Zarqawi's group, Al Qaeda in Iraq, has been behind many of the country's worst insurgent attacks, beheadings and kidnappings. Jordanian-born al-Zarqawi pledged his allegiance to Osama bin Laden in October 2004.

Authorities have said they believe al-Zarqawi, the most wanted man in Iraq, operates from Anbar province. The United States has posted a $25 million reward for information leading to al-Zarqawi's capture.

The U.S. military believes it came close to capturing al-Zarqawi February 20, when he fled on foot just before his car was stopped outside Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province.

U.S. forces operating in western Anbar had been stretched thin, Davis said, playing something of a "cat and mouse" game with the insurgency. He said U.S. Marines and Iraqi forces have driven out insurgents only to have them return once troops had left town.

"Presence equals security equals stability equals success," Davis said of the buildup. "The reallocation of forces allows us to further our campaign of carrying out this formula. This will allow us to pursue our strategy: get into the cities, provide a presence of Iraqi and U.S. forces and give the cities back to Iraq."

Anbar province is dominated by Sunni Arabs, a minority that controlled Iraq during Saddam Hussein's regime.

Teachers targeted

Insurgents dressed as Iraq police shot and killed six teachers Monday, while violence claimed at least 10 other lives, including three U.S. soldiers, authorities in Iraq said.

The teachers were slain at an elementary school in the southern town of Muwalha, sources from the emergency police of Babil province said.

Insurgents drove to the school in two vehicles, took the teachers into a classroom and killed them, the sources said.

Muwalha is a small town near Iskandariya, 60 kilometers (37 miles) south of Baghdad.

It was unclear if the teachers were Shiites, the sources said, but Iskandariya has a Shiite majority.

The soldiers were killed in two incidents, the U.S. military said.

In western Baghdad, a homemade bomb killed two soldiers early Monday, the military said.

The other soldier was killed by a roadside bomb 50 miles southeast of Baghdad.

In the Iraq war, 1,918 U.S. troops have died, including 34 this month.

Seven people were killed and 27 others were wounded in a suicide car bombing in eastern Baghdad on Monday, authorities in Iraq said.

Five of the seven dead in the car bombing were recruits lined up outside the police academy, Iraqi police said. Many of the wounded were Ministry of Oil employees who were passing by in a bus, they said.

Police recruits and government workers are a favorite target of insurgent bombers

[heyholetsgogrant]

Their will be someone to take his place....

-Grant

[Sarge]

Their will be someone to take his place....

-Grant

And they'll die too

[RabidFan]

Lets hope swiftly too

[heyholetsgogrant]

I hope we can get Osama Bin Landen.

-Grant

[nuposse87]

yah like this will end the war.

[Mad Mike]

Their will be someone to take his place....

-Grant

I think you are missing the point of killing leadership vs just another terrorist. Leaders are the ones with the most experience and training. They are harder to replace.

PS I'm not trying to be a smart @ss, but the word you are looking for is "there".

[Mad Mike]

yah like this will end the war.

No it won't end it. But it may shorten it by a little bit and every little bit counts.

Conversely (and this is somthing most people really dont understand), what will make this war last longer or in a worst case scenario, cause us to lose, is the peace activists. They give the enemy hope that they can win. In fact, (think long and hard about this) they are the enemy's ONLY hope. They cannot hope to match us in a toe to toe fight. All they can hope to do is hurt us enough to get the peace activists worked up enough to bring the political pressure needed for us to run away.

Ironic isn't it? :doh:

[Keith Ojala]

Their will be someone to take his place....

-Grant

Maybe he should not have been playing games with the United Nations. If he would have just let them do their inspection. He might still be there with his two wonderful sons haaaaa.

[wskin44]

I wonder why we offer rewards like $25 mil. That is also the sum offered for Osucka. It's an amount that probably overwhelmes those in Pakistan and Iraq that we are trying to attract. How do you quietly turn in Osucka and then try to melt into the background with $25 mil in your pocket? $100,000 and a goat would probably get more action.

[mrdoctor]

i cant wait till we get Osama bin hidin

[Ghost of]

No it won't end it. But it may shorten it by a little bit and every little bit counts.

Conversely (and this is somthing most people really dont understand), what will make this war last longer or in a worst case scenario, cause us to lose, is the peace activists. They give the enemy hope that they can win. In fact, (think long and hard about this) they are the enemy's ONLY hope. They cannot hope to match us in a toe to toe fight. All they can hope to do is hurt us enough to get the peace activists worked up enough to bring the political pressure needed for us to run away.

Ironic isn't it? :doh:

That's kind of how Vietnam worked. In fact, there was close cooperation between the two in the latter stages. And it worked--to the tune of the Khmer Rouge democide and concentration camps in South Vietnam. Read ANY statement by General Giap and he speaks on the importance of the anti-war movement and their willingness to parrot the propaganda from the KGB(and Hanoi.)

Kinda like now, when we have dimwits who call for the "military out of New orleans." How that didn't immediately destroy what shred of cred she might have had I don't know.

[Spaceman Spiff]

Thats nice.

so when do we get osama bin laden? Frankly, I'm tired of getting all these "powerful people" and not him.