May 02, 2007
Risible Tensions
If al Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Ayyub al-Masri was killed in Iraq in a clash yesterday as reported, it appears that tribes that are part of the Sunni Awakening will get credit for the kill:
A local leader from a village near Taji, Muhammad Fadhil of Nibaie, said he heard explosions and gunfire from Monday night through Tuesday morning. He believed the sounds came from clashes between al-Qaeda in Iraq fighters and men from the Falahat tribe and a tribal coalition known as the Anbar Salvation Council. Fadhil also said U.S. and Iraqi forces eventually cordoned off the area.
The Anbar Salvation Council is a Sunni group formerly loyal to al Qaeda and the insurgency that has since joined forces with the Iraqi government and coalition forces. The tribal militias have fought pitched battles against al Qaeda, and has killed or captured hundreds of terrorists over the course of the past few months.
CNN, as befitting their political bias, arrives to the party late:
Reports of fighting between al Qaeda in Iraq and Sunni militants surfaced Tuesday, the latest hints of rising tensions between the two allied groups.Other reports have emerged this year of tensions between Sunni fighters and the Sunni-dominated al Qaeda in Iraq, particularly from Anbar province, long a favored turf for indigenous Sunni insurgents and foreign fighters infiltrating Iraq from Syria.
The Awakening has been fighting tooth and claw against al Qaeda for months in battles involving hundreds of men at a time, (see the Roggio links above, and feel free to Google others), and CNN sees "hints of rising tensions?"
One can only wonder what maelstrom would force them to actually use the word "combat."
Arrives to the party late? You are too kind, CY. CNN has only now encountered the dust kicked up on the trail to the party.
But it is nothing new for a news organization, after ignoring a subject for period of time, to then write about it as though it is a new and current development. How could the organization write it otherwise without also suggesting they are incompetent at providing timely coverage.
Posted by: Dusty at May 2, 2007 10:20 AMWe need to change the course in Iraq!!
Oh wait, it already is. Actually it doesnt count because Bush and Petraeus are the ones responsable.
What scares the Dems the most? Undeniable progress in Iraq during the presedential election in 08. They would still have to try and undermine it and denounce it as unwinnable, and they would pretty weak and stupid. Must I remind you that the American people have a tendancy to change their opinions in a flash. History doesnt look kindly upon cowards.
Posted by: Justin at May 2, 2007 02:14 PMHeres a little tidbit from thh UK's Guardian regarding the leader of AQI, reportedly killed in Iraq a few days ago:
"Al-Masri, an Egyptian, assumed the leadership of al-Qaida in Iraq after the Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed in a US air strike in June 2006. The US government in 2005 set a $50,000 reward for al-Masri's capture, later raising it to $5m.
Security experts say he became a terrorist in 1982 when he joined Ayman al-Zawahiri's Egyptian Islamic Jihad. He probably entered Iraq in 2002, before al-Zarqawi, and may have helped establish the first al-Qaida cell in the Baghdad area.
He had manufactured explosives in Iraq, particularly car and truck bombs, helped foreign fighters move from Syria to Baghdad, and overseen al-Qaida's activities in southern Iraq."
Hmm, Al-queda cell in Iraq in 2002, interesting...
The Guardian must be mistaken -- Iraq was flying kites in 02'.
Posted by: Purple Avenger at May 2, 2007 04:30 PM
