Iraqi Forces Capture #2 Al-Qaeda Leader
Although the headlines aren’t screaming that, it is very significant! The Iraqi forces led the mission!
The leader, Hamed Jumaa Faris Juri al-Saaydi, was captured within the past few days near Baqubah, along with 20 other senior members of the Sunni Arab insurgent group, which was responsible for savage beheadings of kidnapped foreigners and suicide attacks that sometimes killed dozens of civilians in a single strike, said the security adviser, Mowaffak al-Rubaie.
Saaydi was second to Abu Ayyub al-Masri, Rubaie said. Masri had succeeded insurgent leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was killed in June by a U.S. airstrike on a safe house in Baqubah.
“We now think al-Qaeda in Iraq is suffering a great deal and disintegrating,” Rubaie said in a news conference at the U.S.-controlled Green Zone that was broadcast live across the Middle East. “The al-Qaeda organization is suffering from a leadership crisis.”
Rubaie said Iraqi forces had been tracking Saaydi’s movements since the killing of Zarqawi three months ago. Saaydi was hiding inside a home surrounded by women and children whom he was using as a “human shield,” Rubaie said.
Yes, our troops supported this mission, but they did not lead the mission! That is the key. I am hopeful that Al-Qaeda is weakening in Iraq, and based upon the rapid succession of arrests, I think some damage has been done. I do not think that they are retreating though….
September 3, 2006 - 11:47 AM on September 3rd, 2006
How do they know it’s the #2 al Qaeda guy in Iraq? Do they have the double super-secret al Qaeda organizational chart?
September 3, 2006 - 12:06 PM on September 3rd, 2006
Where did you get the idea that the organizational chart was top secret?
September 5, 2006 - 09:26 AM on September 5th, 2006
Why is this kind of thing still news?
They’ll just replace him with someone else…
September 5, 2006 - 09:42 AM on September 5th, 2006
By that logic, why do we publicize elections? I mean really? Who cares, we will just get another person.
September 5, 2006 - 10:03 AM on September 5th, 2006
that’s wishful thinking on SF’s part.
September 5, 2006 - 10:06 AM on September 5th, 2006
I forgot that anything remotely hopeful is bad in his eyes.
September 5, 2006 - 10:12 AM on September 5th, 2006
but don’t forget…he SUPPORTS THE TROOPS!!!
September 5, 2006 - 10:52 AM on September 5th, 2006
Indeed!