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Major Attacks on Decline in Iraq
"The enemy had the initiative and the momentum in '06," said Jack Keane, a retired general who is a chief architect of the increase in troop levels and mentor to Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq. "We've got it now."
Keane spoke from Iraq.
Al-Qaeda militants generally attempt large, headline-grabbing incidents aimed at symbolic targets or mass casualties. Al-Qaeda in Iraq, for example, claimed responsibility for the April suicide bomb attack on parliament.
Successes against al-Qaeda have also been helped by shifting Sunni public opinion and a growing number of insurgent defections, the military says.
"Tribes and people are starting to stand up and fight back," said Brig. Gen. Mick Bednarek, deputy commander of the U.S. division north of Baghdad. "They are turning against al-Qaeda."
Some of the groups have provided intelligence on their former al-Qaeda allies, Lt. Col. Rick Welch, a staff officer who works with tribes, has said.
The increased security in many neighborhoods has also prompted more civilians to come forth with tips, officers said. The U.S. military gets 23,000 tips per month from Iraqis, four times more than last year, said Army Col. Ralph Baker, a former brigade commander in Iraq now assigned to the Pentagon.
Petraeus, who will give his assessment of the boost in troop levels in mid-September, said hundreds of al-Qaeda leaders have been killed or captured in the past month. He cautioned that al-Qaeda still has the "ability to carry out sensational attacks."
Al-Qaeda is generally behind the massive publicity-seeking attacks, but much of the sectarian violence and attacks on coalition forces is the work of Shiite militias, according to the U.S. military.
Violence from Shiite militias remains strong in some areas. In Baghdad, attacks from powerful armor-piercing roadside bombs, called explosively formed penetrators, or EFPs, increased to 35 in July from an average of 23 per month between March and June, said Maj. Steven Lamb, a spokesman for the U.S. division in Baghdad.
The U.S. military says the EFPs are supplied by Iran primarily to Shiite militias. Iran has denied the allegation.
Targeting militias has proved more sensitive than attacking al-Qaeda, since Iraq's Shiite-dominated government draws some of its support from Muqtada al-Sadr, the anti-American Shiite cleric whose followers form one of Iraq's largest militias.
In the past, the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki had sometimes blocked or criticized U.S. raids in Shiite strongholds. U.S. officers say that kind of interference has diminished. Petraeus said coalition and Iraqi forces have made inroads against Shiite extremist groups.
Recent Comments
theenabler52 03:41:00 AM Aug 17 2007
( donedaytona 12:11:05 PM Aug 15 2007 I am surprised at the very idea of good news coming to us about Iraq !!! Even though there are dozens of positive situations happening in Iraq on a daily basis, we never get a single report about any of them. ) < I live in NEBRASKA, a very, very Republican state, the Omaha World-Herald is always putting big " feel good " stories on the front page. You have to look for small articles in the back section to find out the TRUTH. I guess they THINK? most people don't bother to take the time to read the whole paper anymore! P.S. You are DELUDING YOURSELF BELIEVING this is going to end up the way we want it to. It's their country / ( tribes = countries ), they will decide what it will or will not be. One thing for sure the GOVERNMENT ( s ) will CHANGE once we leave, and that I'm afraid will occur because of ATTACKS HERE! The fools haven't SECURED OUR NATION! Talk about getting one's PRIORITIES mixed up!
contrarnc 01:55:51 PM Aug 15 2007
WH NAZI's refuse to protect our own boarders 20 million illegals and this Failure want's new laws to make them Legal!
The Decider is the Chief Law Enforcement Officer and he stated when Hate Crime legislation came up that "we had laws already concerning Hate crime and no new ones were needed" All a president has to do is enforce those EXISTING laws! Mr. Decider we Democrats demand that you being the Chief law enforcement officer of this Nation and Illegal Immigration is the Problem, either do your job or resign immediately !!! Stop wasting time by diverting attention away from your Failed War and throwing money away for New Laws when existing ones only require enforcement! Do your Job or hire another Czar so your can remain sitting on your incompetent ass or better yet resign!
contrarnc 01:55:47 PM Aug 15 2007
WH NAZI's refuse to protect our own boarders 20 million illegals and this Failure want's new laws to make them Legal!
The Decider is the Chief Law Enforcement Officer and he stated when Hate Crime legislation came up that "we had laws already concerning Hate crime and no new ones were needed" All a president has to do is enforce those EXISTING laws! Mr. Decider we Democrats demand that you being the Chief law enforcement officer of this Nation and Illegal Immigration is the Problem, either do your job or resign immediately !!! Stop wasting time by diverting attention away from your Failed War and throwing money away for New Laws when existing ones only require enforcement! Do your Job or hire another Czar so your can remain sitting on your incompetent ass or better yet resign!
Sphere1532 01:37:00 PM Aug 15 2007
They shoot them sun of an itch with no can to you make the dam map
as we need you no need go a 3rd time over those horn swagel biter
taker to us for money, yes we jumped them in the 90's still how they get paved
roads , i say are you get toyed with, untell it looks as you choose it to look
if may you never need to go back , you make the map , an nothing free,
less you some hoper of in the ways,get on with it you boot best no have you foot wrought, as this seem to be makeings of a S pain or porch of lesser.
IRACCHLK Y L: has no value make sure this try at hope for it ends http://news.aol.com/story/_a/major-attacks-on-decline-in-iraq/20070813095309990001#cmntbgn
donedaytona 12:11:00 PM Aug 15 2007
I am surprised at the very idea of good news coming to us about Iraq !!! Even though there are dozens of positive situations happening in Iraq on a daily basis, we never get a single report about any of them.
The agenda of the liberal media, and the democrat leadership, has been to dishearten Americans, and pressure this administration to surrender to terrorists.
In recent days, however, the story-line is beginning to change . From the New York Times on down, the libs are starting to lay the groundwork for the argument that we now must STAY in Iraq, and WIN !!! This is no shock to any of us that follow politics today. The liberal media has to provide cover for the next democrat hopeful that might win the White House in 2008. The dems have not been able to convince Americans that the war is "lost" ( Harry Reid ) , or that there really is no need to be concerned about terror attacks anymore. So they are now going by the old adage, " if you can't beat America, join her " .
theenabler52 09:47:00 AM Aug 15 2007
TIME is not on our side, it is working against US. We're out on a limb there and they know it sooner or later they're going to come up with a SAW! The bumber crop of OPIUM has filled the coffers to overflowing. Many UNSCROUPULOUS traders in WMD exist in the world. FEELING LUCKY TODAY? KEEP FIGHTING! We'll see what TOMORROW brings! You can't WIN ALL THE TIME!
mesiii 09:24:05 AM Aug 15 2007
I wonder if these 200 dead people realized that major attacks are on the decline.... One more LIE!
200 Iraqis slaughtered by suicide truck bombs
(AFP)
15 August 2007
MOSUL, Iraq - More than 200 people were slaughtered when four suicide truck bombs targeted the ancient Yazidi religious sect in northern Iraq amid growing fears on Wednesday that more dead were trapped under the rubble.
In one of the bloodiest single incidents of the four-year war in Iraq, bombers detonated four explosive-laden trucks in two villages in the province of Nineveh inhabited by members of Iraq?s Yazidi minority late Tuesday.
The attacks in the villages of Al-Khataniyah and Al-Adnaniyah killed more than 200 people and wounded another 200, said Dakhil Qassim Hassun, mayor of the Sinjar municipality.
theenabler52 08:12:00 AM Aug 15 2007
Only 20 more shopping days before the EMP's start falling! Time to take ACTION! OBL Dreams Of EMP Bomb Attack On USA
Washington (UPI) Jun 22, 2006 - A former Pakistani intelligence agent who once worked closely with Osama bin Laden says that the US may well be attacked ...
www.spacewar.com/reports/OBL_Dreams_Of_EMP_Bomb_... - 24k - Similar pages
obyrnr 11:13:37 PM Aug 14 2007
The only time the US has won its wars is when it lifts the barriers to do war. Vietnam was lost because we could not stop the supply lines from Cambodia and Laos. We had to follow rules the VC didn't have to follow. We have the Korea situation because we couldn't stop the Chinese supply lines. We had to stay in Korea and follow rules China didn't have to follow. The same thing is happening in Iraq. WE need to stop the influx from Syria and Iran. Until that is done the situation won't get any better.
contrarnc 09:26:38 PM Aug 14 2007
At least 175 killed in north Iraq bombings: army 14 Aug 2007 At least 175 people were killed when three suicide bombers driving fuel tankers attacked residential compounds home to the ancient minority Yazidi sect in northern Iraq on Tuesday, an Iraqi army captain said. Captain Mohammad al-Jaad said at least another 200 people were wounded in the bombings in the Kahtaniya, al-Jazeera and Tal Uzair areas near the northern Iraqi town of Sinjar, close to the Syrian border.
5 dead, a dozen missing in Iraq bridge bombing 14 Aug 2007 A suicide bomber detonated a truckload of explosives on a key bridge north of the Iraqi capital today, plunging the concrete span and at least three vans packed with passengers into the murky waters of a wide canal linking the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Police said at least five people were killed and a dozen were missing.
Five U.S. personnel killed in Iraq helicopter crash 14 Aug 2007 Five U.S. service personnel were killed when a military transport helicop
