The Iraq war is having a profoundly negative effect on al-Qaeda in the eyes of the Muslim world. In no small part this is due to the endless brutality and mayhem al-Qaeda is inflicting on Muslims in Iraq, as today’s headlines clearly illustrate:

Four truck bombs exploded in two Iraqi villages in a Kurdish-speaking area near the Syrian border on Tuesday. The Iraqi authorities said at least 200 people had been killed, The Associated Press reported.

The bombs destroyed houses and sent hundreds of the wounded to at least six hospitals as far as 150 miles away, the authorities said.

al-Qaeda has become a one trick wonder – it is massacring Muslims by the hundreds each day. This mindless brutality, meant to cower the Iraqis into submission, has backfired greatly and resulted in Iraqis swearing on the Koran to destroy al-Qaeda and purge it from their lands. This too can be seen now daily in the news reporting:

A girl and seven gunmen were killed in clashes today between alleged Al-Qaeda extremists and local Sunnis in a rebel hotspot in one of Iraq’s most dangerous provinces, officials said.

Armed with guns and mortars, militants loyal to Al-Qaeda launched a dawn attack in the Sunni Arab town of Bohruz in Diyala, a province northeast of Baghdad, Iraqi army Brigadier General Najeeb al-Salehi said.

Local residents, Salehi said, took up arms to fend off the assault.

During a two-hour gunbattle, a girl died in the crossfire and seven gunmen were killed. Another 15 young men were also wounded.

Doctor Ahmed Alwan at Baquba General Hospital confirmed that a female child and seven gunmen died, and that 15 people were treated for injuries.

Sheikh Udai al-Bahrizawi, who presented himself as a commander in the 1920 Revolution Brigades – a Baathist insurgent group – said his fighters repelled the attack and claimed that they had killed seven of the Al-Qaeda enemy.

The wave of anti al-Qaeda sentiment is not stopping at Iraq’s borders. News is now coming out of Algiers, far away from the Iraq conflict, that one time fighter for al-Qaeda are abandoning the group:

Dozens of foreigners who joined al Qaeda’s Algeria-based north Africa wing have been leaving because they are disillusioned, a recent deserter from the group said in remarks published on Wednesday.

Benmessaoud Abdelkader gave himself up last month after disagreements with other leaders of the Al Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb, which claimed responsibility for a triple suicide bombing that killed 33 people in Algiers on April 11.

El Watan newspaper quoted Benmessaoud as saying about 50 foreign recruits had joined the group, but many had either left already or now sought to leave.

“Most of those who operated in the Sahara have gone back home after discovering that the situation they had hoped for was just a delusion,” El Watan said.

…

“They are doing the opposite of what Islam advocates,” he added, mentioning suicide bombings and racketeering. “Resorting to suicide attacks and explosives is the strategy of organisations at bay.”

“The situation in Iraq and Afghanistan is different from that prevailing in Algeria. In those countries, there is an occupation, which is not the case for our country,” he added.

The situation in Iraq is actually very different than this one time al-Qaeda fighter claims. The ones trying to occupy Iraq through force and bloodshed is al-Qaeda. The protectors of the Iraqi people is now seen to be the United States. And we are the ones taking the battle to al-Qaeda along side the locals trying to defend themselves. The sea change flowing against al-Qaeda is growing and rising. al-Qaeda blood thirsty habits and its focus on killing Muslims, for nothing more than media attention, has sowed a backlash from which al-Qaeda will not recover any time soon.