May 04 2007

al Qaeda Loses Another Capitol Of Its Caliphate

Published by at 7:40 am under All General Discussions,Diyala,Iraq

added the link!

If this war was being reported on honestly, then the Surrendermedia would be noting that al Qaeda has lost its second declared capitol of its exhaulted Caliphate – centered in Iraq. When al Qaeda ran Anbar Province Ramadi was designated as the modern Caliphate’s capitol city. Anbar and Ramadi have been purged of al Qaeda as the Iraqi government won local Sunni support. The Caliphate lost its first capitol. al Qaeda pulled a Democratic-Manuever and then ran from Anbar to Diyala Province (just like the Surrendercrats want to run from Iraq to Okinawa to find al Qaeda).

In Diyala’s capitol city of Baqouba al Qaeda established the modern Caliphate’s second capitol city from which they would conquer the region and the world:

Across the walls of the villas they seized in the name of their shadow government, black-masked al-Qaida militants spray-painted the words: “Property of the Islamic State of Iraq.”

They manned checkpoints and buried an elaborate network of bombs in the streets. They issued austere edicts ordering women not to work. They filmed themselves attacking Americans and slaughtered those who did not believe in their cause.

For months, al-Qaida turned a part of one Baqouba neighborhood into an insurgent fiefdom that American and Iraqi forces were too undermanned to tackle – a startling example of the terror group’s ability to thrive openly in some places outside Baghdad even as U.S.-led forces struggle to regain control in the capital.

U.S. forces, including members of a Stryker brigade from Fort Lewis, took back the entire Tahrir neighborhood during a weeklong operation that wrapped up Sunday in Baqouba, a city 35 miles northeast of Baghdad that al-Qaida declared last year the capital of its self-styled Islamic caliphate.

al Qaeda’s PR game is good because the SurrenderMedia refuse to report objectively. They, like the Surrendercrats, are trying to maximize Democrat political fortunes – not do their job. The one organization doing its job is the military. They are doing the job of taking and holding terroritory so as to choke off al Qaeda. It is clear the final big battle for Iraq will be in Diyala and Baghdad – and my guess is much of the Islamo-Fascist forces are out of Baghdad and in Diyala. But the model that worked in Anbar can work in Diyala since al Qaeda’s edicts and tactics are even too brutal for the land and people of Saddam Hussien:

When U.S. forces began pouring into the district last week, residents said it was the first time they’d seen significant numbers of coalition troops since last fall. U.S. troops set up a combat outpost in northern Tahrir several months ago.

But to the south, residents recounted watching helplessly as masked fighters came and went freely in past months, piling weapons into the back of vehicles and taking over the homes of Shiites who had either fled or been killed.

“We were terrorized,” said one man. “We wondered, Where is the government? Why have they forgotten us? Why does nobody come here to help?”

The battle for Baqouba picked up in mid-March.

U.S. commanders rushed in a Fort Lewis Stryker infantry battalion that helped clear, and eventually calm, the southern district of Buhriz, once the city’s most violent area. While American forces fought there and in Old Baqouba, they watched Tahrir spin into chaos.

Parsons said video from an unmanned aerial drone last month showed suspected al-Qaida militants searching vehicles at a checkpoint. They held back from destroying it, choosing to “track them to see where they were going, where they lived,” Parsons said.

Then, for eight days in early April, al-Qaida battled fellow insurgents from the nationalist 1920 Revolution Brigades, who residents said were trying to resist the terror group’s bid for control. The nationalist fighters ran out of ammunition and fled.

With the district firmly in al-Qaida’s hands, local leaders and sheiks called on American and Iraqi soldiers for help.

The next day, Parsons moved three of his platoons into central Tahrir on foot. All three came under fire. The day ended with a 30-minute firefight at dusk in which rounds ripped through palm groves.

Fighting eased afterward. Soon, previously empty streets were teeming with crowds of people who shook soldiers’ hands as they passed.

Read the entire article. It is a clear example of how the tide is turning on al Qaeda, who is now losing or lost their second capitol city in a year. When an enemy loses two capitol cities it should be reported they are losing badly…. It should be reported that way.

14 responses so far

14 Responses to “al Qaeda Loses Another Capitol Of Its Caliphate”

  1. MerlinOS2 says:

    Link please or did I miss it?

  2. MerlinOS2 says:

    Another good article on problems with some of the militants splitting away from AQI.

    http://tinyurl.com/2pkyby
    More Cracks Emerging in Al-Qaida’s “Islamic State of Iraq”

    This is the counter terrorism blog.

  3. lurker9876 says:

    This is getting better!

    The House Democrats are still insisting on approving the budget by July or something like that.

    Will such news eliminate the justification for troop pullout?

  4. AJStrata says:

    Sorry Merlin, screwed the links up on this one TWICE!

  5. ordi says:

    AJ

    Good article however, it appears the article is from Nov 06.

    Here is an article printed this week concerning the same area and demonstrates how the tide IS turning against al Qaeda.

    http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0503/p01s04-wome.html

  6. AJStrata says:

    Ordi,

    Interesting date thing! I got it off a Google News Search dated today! Thanks for the link.

    AJStrata

  7. ordi says:

    AJ

    Here is a follow-up article from today. Both good articles.

    http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0504/p06s01-woiq.html

  8. AJStrata says:

    Boy, am I slow this morning!

    Merlin and Ordi – now that the bricks you tried to apply to my forehead have sunk in I added the missing link! Geez….

  9. lurker9876 says:

    No problem, AJ. It’s only Friday!

  10. ordi says:

    AJ

    You are normally the one pointing things out to us so don’t begrudge us getting a few licks in on you. LOL 🙂

  11. AJStrata says:

    Ordi,

    I don’t mind, and even appreciate, you folks helping me clean up my mistakes. I just always feel bad for leaving them out there!

    AJStrata

  12. ordi says:

    AJ

    I was sure of that. Other sites are not as humble and gracious about these things as you are.

  13. ordi says:

    Bill Roggio has an informative post entitled “The Sunni Awakening” which dicusses the progress of most of the Iraqi Tribes are making in their turning against AQ.

    http://billroggio.com/archives/2007/05/the_sunni_awakening.php

    Let’s cross out fingers and hope the Dems need to lay in a BIG supply of Mallox this fall.

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