Great news on the Surrenderfront (oops, sorry…. I had a liberal moment there for a second) warfront: another key leader of al Qaeda’s efforts in Iraq was killed this week.

U.S. and Iraqi forces have killed the head of the self-styled Islamic State in Iraq, an al Qaeda-led militant group that has claimed many major attacks in the country, Iraq’s deputy interior minister said on Thursday.

Hussein Kamal said Abu Omar al-Baghdadi had been killed in a battle north of Baghdad. He declined to say when but said authorities had recovered Baghdadi’s body.

“Abu Omar al-Baghdadi was killed north of Baghdad by Iraqi and American forces. He died as a result of wounds sustained in clashes. The Interior Ministry has his body to carry out further checks,” Kamal told Reuters by telephone.

If the death of al-Masri is confirmed then this is a major blow to al Qaeda in Iraq and a clear sign the organization is losing ground fast. It is akin to taking out Rommel in Europe. Slowly but surely you trim the key players and soon the entire movement falls apart.

In February, Baghdadi vowed to widen attacks to all parts of Iraq instead of just focusing on the capital after Washington announced plans to beef up its forces in the city.

Baghdadi had said Bush was giving Muslim fighters a chance “to slaughter the wounded crusader giant and take advantage of the collapsing morale of its soldiers and commanders.”

It does seem the Surrendercrats were not able to save much of al Qaeda in Iraq after all. But we all know, they did try.