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US: Al-Qaida presence in Baghdad reduced

CAMP SPEICHER, Iraq - The threat from al-Qaida in several former strongholds in Baghdad has been significantly reduced, but criminals who have established "almost mafia-like presence" in some areas pose a new threat, the top U.S. commander in Iraq said Sunday.

Gen. David Petraeus stressed, however, the terror organization remained "a very dangerous and very lethal enemy" � a comment underscored by the abduction Sunday in Baghdad of 10 Sunni and Shiite tribal leaders who joined forces against al-Qaida.

"Its presence has been significantly reduced and its activity and freedom of action have been degraded," Petraeus told a small group of reporters at a U.S. base near Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit, 80 miles north of Baghdad.

He singled out success in what had been some of the most volatile Sunni neighborhoods in Baghdad, including Ghazaliyah, Amariyah, Azamiyah and Dora.

"Having said that ... al-Qaida remains a very dangerous and very lethal enemy of Iraq," he said. "We must maintain contact with them and not allow them to establish sanctuaries or re-establish sanctuaries in places where they were before."

The gunmen ambushed the two cars carrying the 10 sheiks � seven Sunnis and three Shiites � in Baghdad's predominantly Shiite neighborhood of Shaab at about 3:30 p.m., police officials said.

The sheiks were returning to Diyala province after attending a conference with the Shiite-dominated government's adviser for tribal affairs to discuss coordinating efforts against al-Qaida in Iraq, police and a relative said.

Petraeus said the reduced threat from al-Qaida had given way to nonsectarian crimes � kidnapping, corruption in the oil industry and extortion.

"As the terrible extremist threat of al-Qaida has been reduced somewhat, there is in some Iraqi neighborhoods actually a focus on crime and on extortion that has been ongoing and kidnapping cells and what is almost a mafia-like presence in certain areas," he said.

Petraeus made his comments after a transition ceremony as the 1st Armored Division, which is based in Wiesbaden, Germany, assumed command of northern Iraq from the Hawaii-based 25th Infantry Division.

The new commander for the region, Maj. Gen. Mark Hertling, said the number of attacks so far in October had dropped by 300 from the previous month, although he did not provide more specific numbers.

A car bomb Sunday ripped through a Kirkuk bus terminal that serves travelers to Iraq's Kurdish region, killing eight people and wounding 26, according to police Brig. Gen. Sarhat Qadir.

The terminal is located in a mainly Kurdish area of Kirkuk, an oil-rich city which Iraq's Kurds want to annex to their self-rule region in the north of the country.

The city's Arab and Turkomen residents dispute the Kurdish claim.

Gunmen meanwhile, sprayed a car carrying five bodyguards of the head of local Sunni Endowments department in the turbulent city of Basra, killing one of them and injuring the rest, police said.

Also in Basra, a mainly Shiite city 340 miles southeast of Baghdad, a local elections official was gunned down late Saturday in front of his house.

The police officials who reported both attacks spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media. They did not give a motive for the attacks.

But while the attack on the bodyguards may have had a sectarian motive � the Sunni Endowment is a state agency that looks after the sect's mosques and seminaries � the second one could have been linked to the widening fight among rival Shiite groups vying for control of the city in the wake of the redeployment outside Basra of British troops.

News of the attacks in Basra came as a public tussle between Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and the country's Sunni Arab vice president, Tariq al-Hashemi, grew more intense.

Al-Hashemi's office said in a statement Sunday that he asked President Jalal Talabani to push parliament to pardon security detainees who aren't what he called "dangerous elements" that would rejoin the insurgency.

Al-Hashemi has campaigned for the release of thousands of detainees held in Iraqi and U.S.-run detention facilities without charge. He appeared to be trying to bypass al-Maliki in the appeal.

Nearly 90 percent of the estimated 25,000 Iraqis held by the U.S. military are believed to be members of the once-dominant Sunni Arab minority, a fact that Sunni politicians say is evidence of sectarian policies of the Shiite-dominated government.

Petraeus also offered some personal reflection on the plight of Sultan Hashim al-Tai, who faces the death penalty after his conviction for his role in a Saddam Hussein-era military campaign that killed tens of thousands of Kurds.

Al-Tai and the two other defendants � Saddam's cousin "Chemical Ali" al-Majid and Hussein Rashid Mohammed, former deputy operations director for the Iraqi military � were convicted in June of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity for their part in the 1986-88 crackdown. They were sentenced to death by hanging.

But the executions have been delayed as Iraqi politicians wrangle over the refusal of Jalal Talabani, himself a Kurd, to sign the order, as required by the constitution. Some legal experts have argued the requirement did not apply to former regime officials.

Al-Tai, a Sunni Arab from the northern city of Mosul, negotiated the cease-fire than ended the 1991 Gulf War, when a U.S.-led coalition drove Iraqi forces from Kuwait. He also surrendered to U.S. forces in September 2003 after weeks of negotiations. His defense lawyers claimed the Americans had promised al-Tai "protection and good treatment" before he turned himself in.

Petraeus, who was then commander of the 101st Airborne division that oversaw the surrender, denied he had promised al-Tai immunity.

"We put the word out to his family through interlocutors that you know I would receive his surrender in an honorable manner and convey him to the central authorities and that's basically what we did. And I did treat him honorably."

Petraeus said they brought al-Tai's family to him for a "final farewell." The commander also recalled that he personally flew al-Tai in his helicopter to Mosul and spent about an hour with him as they waited for a C-130 transport plane to fly him to Baghdad.

"But the bottom line is that if the appropriate Iraqi process is followed then we will respect that process," he said, adding that the three men remained in U.S. custody.

LINK

That's funny, since al-qaeda wasn't there before the war.

Hmmm, sounds eerily familiar to, oh wait, it sounds very much like your previous post on the matter:

http://www.tranceaddict.com/forums/...566&forumid=66&

But of course it's worth a brand new post of it's own. But hey, considering al-Qaeda was approximately at best maybe 10% of the insurgency problem, it's always worth propping our flag up with Victory somewhere.

Then again, that little monster in the room known as civil war just doesn't seem to go away so gosh darn easily. At the same time we declare near Victory! against an enemy that was never in Iraq until we invaded, we've got the other gigantic head of the monster looming all around:

quote:

Gen. David H. Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker have concluded that Shiite extremists pose a rising threat to the U.S. effort in Iraq, as the relative influence of Sunni insurgent groups such as al-Qaeda in Iraq has diminished drastically because of ongoing U.S. operations. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dy...ml?hpid=topnews

Not to worry, though. It's the power of how strong you can clap that will keep these eeevildoers at bay.......

FINALLY!!! Mission Accomplished.

Too bad the US presence in Baghdad isn't reduced...

Re: US: Al-Qaida presence in Baghdad reduced

quote:

Originally posted by LatinLover LINK

You are delusional----->>>

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

This happened today....

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071028/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq

10 tribal sheiks kidnapped in Baghdad

By KIM GAMEL, Associated Press Writer 37 minutes ago

BAGHDAD - Gunmen in Baghdad snatched 10 Sunni and Shiite tribal sheiks from their cars Sunday as they were heading home to Diyala province after talks with the government on fighting al-Qaida, and at least one was later found shot to death.

The bold daylight kidnapping came as the top U.S. commander in Iraq said the threat from the terror network has been "significantly reduced" in the capital.

A suicide car bomber, meanwhile, struck a busy commercial area in the oil-rich, northern city of Kirkuk, killing at least eight people and wounding 26, police said.

A new general assumed control of the region north of Baghdad, acknowledging that violence remains high but expressing confidence that the military has al-Qaida on the run there as well.

The two cars carrying the sheiks � seven Sunnis and three Shiites � were ambushed in Baghdad's predominantly Shiite neighborhood of Shaab at about 3:30 p.m., police officials said.

The sheiks were returning to Diyala province after attending a meeting with the Shiite-dominated government's adviser for tribal affairs to discuss coordinating efforts against al-Qaida in Iraq, police and a relative said.

Police found the bullet-riddled body of one of the Sunni sheiks, Mishaan Hilan, about 50 yards away from where the ambush took place, an officer said, adding that the victim was identified after his cell phone was found on him.

A relative of one of the abducted Shiite sheiks blamed Sunni extremists and said the attackers picked a Shiite neighborhood to "create strife between Shiite and Sunni tribes that have united against al-Qaida in the area."

But, Jassim Zeidan al-Anbaqi said, "this will not happen."

The well-planned attack was the latest to target anti-al-Qaida tribal leaders and other officials in an apparent bid to intimidate them from joining the U.S.-sponsored grass roots strategy that the military says has contributed to a recent drop in violence.

Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, said Sunday that the threat from al-Qaida in several former strongholds in Baghdad has been "significantly reduced" but the group remains "a very dangerous and very lethal enemy."

He singled out success in what had been some of the most volatile Sunni neighborhoods in Baghdad, including Ghazaliyah, Amariyah, Azamiyah and Dora.

"Having said that ... al-Qaida remains a very dangerous and very lethal enemy of Iraq," he said. "We must maintain contact with them and not allow them to establish sanctuaries or re-establish sanctuaries in places where they were before."

Petraeus said the reduced threat from al-Qaida had given way to nonsectarian crimes � kidnapping, corruption in the oil industry and extortion.

"As the terrible extremist threat of al-Qaida has been reduced somewhat, there is in some Iraqi neighborhoods actually a focus on crime and on extortion that has been ongoing and kidnapping cells and what is almost a mafia-like presence in certain areas," he said.

Petraeus made his comments after a transition ceremony as the 1st Armored Division, which is based in Wiesbaden, Germany, assumed command of northern Iraq from the Hawaii-based 25th Infantry Division at Camp Speicher, a U.S. base near Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit, 80 miles north of Baghdad.

The new commander for the region, Maj. Gen. Mark Hertling, said the number of attacks so far in October had dropped by more than 300 from last month, although he did not provide more specific figures.

"The levels are still high in some of the northern provinces," he said. "But while they're still high ... they have been decreasing significantly."

"We are in, I believe, a pursuit operation with al-Qaida," he said, adding that attacks were more focused on local civilians and Iraqi security forces. "They are targeting the concerned local citizens, the police stations and some of the gathering places of sheiks ... specifically to try and deter the Iraqi people from moving forward."

In all, at least 35 people were killed or found dead across the nation, including the decomposing bodies of 12 Shiites found near the Diyala provincial capital of Baqouba, an army officer said.

An explosives-laden car also exploded near a market in Baghdad's northern Shiite district of Kazimiyah, killing at least two civilians and wounding 10, according to local police

The suicide bombing in Kirkuk, 80 miles north of Baghdad, struck a mainly Kurdish area in the city, which has seen a rise in ethnic tensions as Iraq's Kurds try to strengthen their presence there as a prelude to annexing it to their nearby self-rule region.

The city's Arab and Turkomen residents dispute the Kurdish claim.

Several cars and nearby stores and restaurants were set on fire and black smoke rose from the area as panicked people ran over bloodstained sidewalks.

On a separate subject, Petraeus offered some personal reflection on the plight of Sultan Hashim al-Tai, a Saddam Hussein-era defense minister who faces the death penalty after his conviction for his role in the so-called Anfal campaign that killed tens of thousands of Kurds.

The executions of al-Tai � along with Saddam's cousin "Chemical Ali" al-Majid and Hussein Rashid Mohammed, former deputy operations director for the Iraqi military � have been delayed as Iraqi politicians and legal experts wrangle over the refusal of President Jalal Talabani, himself a Kurd, to sign the order.

Al-Tai, a Sunni Arab from the northern city of Mosul, negotiated the cease-fire than ended the 1991 Gulf War, when a U.S.-led coalition drove Iraqi forces from Kuwait. He also surrendered to U.S. forces in September 2003 after weeks of negotiations. His defense lawyers claimed the Americans had promised al-Tai "protection and good treatment" before he turned himself in.

Petraeus, who was then commander of the 101st Airborne division that oversaw the surrender, denied reports that he had promised al-Tai immunity.

"We were very hot on his heels," he said. "So we put the word out to his family through interlocutors that ... I would receive his surrender in an honorable manner and convey him to the central authorities and that's basically what we did. And I did treat him honorably."

Petraeus said they brought al-Tai's family to visit him and he said he personally flew al-Tai in his helicopter to Mosul and spent about an hour with him as they waited for a C-130 transport plane to fly him to Baghdad.

"I actually visited him there one time. Another time we took his some family members and an imam to see him," he recalled. "But the bottom line is that if the appropriate Iraqi process is followed then we will respect that process."

Re: Re: US: Al-Qaida presence in Baghdad reduced

quote:

Originally posted by Krypton You are delusional----->>> ----------------------------------------------------------------------- This happened today....

Yes, but what that illustrates is that there is more of a united front in iraq against al qaida. I saw an excellent interview the other day which highlighted how tribal leaders are helping quell the violence, that's a positive in whichever way you look at it.

Sheesh, even osama has come out to criticise the insurgents as well as those adhering to tribal allegiances instead of al qaida's own brand of sharia law. -this is an important point for those of you wishing to see a US withdrawal, al qaida will continue the fight in iraq against those it perceives an enemy of islam, which includes moderate muslims.

Re: Re: Re: US: Al-Qaida presence in Baghdad reduced

quote:

Originally posted by pkcRAISTLIN Yes, but what that illustrates is that there is more of a united front in iraq against al qaida. I saw an excellent interview the other day which highlighted how tribal leaders are helping quell the violence, that's a positive in whichever way you look at it. Sheesh, even osama has come out to criticise the insurgents as well as those adhering to tribal allegiances instead of al qaida's own brand of sharia law. -this is an important point for those of you wishing to see a US withdrawal, al qaida will continue the fight in iraq against those it perceives an enemy of islam, which includes moderate muslims.

Finally someone with a brain around here

Its true! And it seems that desperation and frustration is taking over Al Qaeda in Iraq. Through these past months videos and audio tapes have loomed from Bin Laden calling out terrorist groups to join them... It seems that Al Qaeda in Iraq is losing grip.

It was a perfect tactic that the US implemented in getting group bosses to turn against al qaeda. We are now seeing those results, these groups are basically setting up the foundation of local governance in the towns they protect from Al Qaeda intervention. They are providing security to local citizens and are bringing an atmosphere of security.

Re: Re: Re: Re: US: Al-Qaida presence in Baghdad reduced

quote:

Originally posted by LatinLover It was a perfect tactic that the US implemented in getting group bosses to turn against al qaeda.

I'm sorry, but the US had nothing to do with that. Iraq was one of the most anti-al Qaeda countries in the Middle East prior to 3/20/2003.

Al - Qaida may be away from Bagdad.

But now Bagdad is full of nulcear radiation, since those clever Americans used uran amunition. So soon there will be lots of people with cancer...

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