While the Denial of Service (DoS) attacks continued today on Hosting Matters and bloggers, the US coalition in Iraq was kicking some butt.  Note this story as a follow on to a previous story of some serious Special Ops actions to take down Al Qaeda in Iraq:

The United States military announced on Friday that 21 militants were killed and another 43 captured in Diyala after a series of attacks on military and police checkpoints the day before.

Diyala Governor Rad Rasheed al-Mulla also imposed a curfew in the province following the brutal attacks that left 16 people dead, including six Iraq Army soldiers.

On Thursday, militants carried out a number of attacks in and around the provincial capital of Baquba, largely on military and police checkpoints. “Iraqi security forces quickly responded to a series of attacks in Baquba, leaving 21 anti-Iraqi forces dead and capturing 43,” the US military said. Mulla had said on Thursday that 15 militants were killed and 25 captured.

Folks, we are getting these leads because the Iraqis want Al Qaeda out of their country, out of their cities and out of their neighborhoods.  Watch for a trend to begin where US forces are repeatedly tipped off to Al Qaeda cells:

Mulla said “the attackers planned to seize control of south, west and southwest entrances to the city – but failed.” Iraq’s Interior Ministry sources also said that Iraqi and US forces killed a senior member of Al Qaeda in Iraq.

Humadi al-Takhi, who they said was a district commander of the group, was killed in a raid on a house on Friday about 10 kilometres from Samarra. It was not possible to independently verify the claim. A senior intelligence official in Tikrit said the raid followed intelligence reports. The US military said in a statement two other militants were killed in the raid.

And yes, the war in Iraq is over Murtha.