May 15 2007
NATO Takes Out Three More Taliban Leaders, And More
On the heels of killing the number 2 and number 3 leaders of the Taliban (Mullah Omar – your time is coming) a NATO airstrike, based on tips from locals, has taken out three more leaders, plus nearly 60 others:
NATO air forces bombarded some Taliban hideouts in Jalai district, which is about 40 km west of the provincial capital Kandahar city, on Monday night after receiving a credible tip-off, Alizai said.
The killed commanders were Mullah Abdul Hanan, Mullah Zekria and Mullah Zarif, Alizai said, adding he did not know how many militants were injured.
A searching operation for Taliban rebels in the area is going on, he added.
A collection of 60 Taliban in one area means a high level, important meeting with plenty of (useless) security. The tide is turning. The people of Afghanistan are as fed up with the Islamo Fascists and their brutality as the Iraqis. The Muslim civil war continues with more and more indications we are gaining more support and backing.
The British commander’s apology for a bombing raid in which more than 20 civilians were killed was depressingly familiar; heartfelt as it was, there have been too many such incidents.
But when Brig. John Lorimer went on to accuse the Taliban of hiding among civilians and putting them at risk with “cowardly action against your people,” a funny thing happened: Dozens of Afghan men nodded in agreement.
The exchange, suggesting progress in the vital battle for the hearts and minds of the Afghan public, took place late last week at a jirga, an assembly, with several hundred men, many of them with Taliban sympathies.
And yes, the Iraqis are turning against the fascists as well:
An Iraqi man wearing a crisp white robe steps from the shadows of a Baghdad mosque. American soldiers whisper greetings. Fumbling nervously with his cigarette, the informant rattles off names of clandestine Shiite militiamen.
The 3 a.m. encounter, witnessed by The Associated Press this month in a Shiite neighborhood of northwest Baghdad, was part of a U.S. attempt to weaken the grip of extremists in the Mahdi Army militia — one of the most powerful forces in Iraq’s array of insurgents, militants and gunmen outside government control.
An apparent split emerging in the Mahdi Army — led by anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr — is where the U.S. military hopes to make its gains. They are aided by Mahdi members seeking to purge rivals they describe as “criminal elements.”
Those willing to cooperate with the Americans are part of a larger group that calls itself the “noble Mahdi Army” and accuses others in the Mahdi Army of going too far by killing innocent Sunni civilians and embezzling militia funds. The informants also target fighters they claim were trained and armed by Iranians, but offer no further proof or details.
I always felt the Surrendercrats had taken power way too late to actually be able to snatch defeat from America and her allies (and yes, we have lots of allies in the ME right now). The “all is lost” party is right about one thing – they are losing.
Something I don’t think has been fully appreciated is the quality and extent of the French intelligence services in the region. They are very good. With Sarkozy in charge, I have a feeling even more resources are being brought to bear against various radicals.
CP
I hope you are right, Sarkozy has been around for a while and may have a feel for the French intel community, but I am always skeptical they they have their own agendas built up over their time of association with their sources.
To many times I have seen intel agencies seem to think we have the “correct” world view since we have done the down and dirty and we will play lip service to the other guys above us and still plod on our merry way from the institutional viewpoint we have built. They are harder to control than a supertanker with it’s throttle welded on “how fast can we make this baby run”.
I believe Sarkozy will be more aggressive and not so “live and let live” toward Islamist fascists. I did not mean that they would necessarily act more in our interest, I meant to say that what France sees as being in her own interest may now be more in line with ours.
It might now serve French interests to have us to continue being the hammer but they being another set of eyes and ears to help us be more effective.
So, rather than turning a blind eye to certain things or at least keeping quiet about them, it might now be in their interest to share a little more than has been the case in the past. Either way, we will probably never know. Or at least I hope we never know.
Pat Dollard has an interesting read tonight and he is tightly involved in the “on the ground” assesments.
http://tinyurl.com/2l9pgj
Al-Qaeda has lost its most powerful friend in Iraq: Harith al-Dari, the country’s most influential Sunni cleric and a prominent anti-American figure, has rejected al-Qaeda’s vision of an Islamic state, telling TIME that Iraqis “will not accept such a system.†In a sharp departure from his long-standing view of the terror group, al-Dari now says al-Qaeda has “gone too far.†He also repudiates recent statements on Iraq by Osama bin Laden’s deputy, saying: “Ayman al-Zawahiri doesn’t represent Iraqis.â€
Read the rest, but take it as anything else you have a chance to learn.
The long term question is how many Judas players do we have shifting to the side they think is winning.
Well we and others will have to sort that out in the aftermath but if you have a Judas player and they have to stand on their own after the stuff settles then you can weed them out since they are so much smaller than the combined front.
A lot of games being played and chips being put up. How well do they know Texas Holdum?