Posted on 10/17/2004 4:22:16 AM PDT by alnitak
Edited on 10/17/2004 4:31:11 AM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
UP TO 20 people suspected of taking part in an operation to free the British hostage Ken Bigley have been murdered in a purge of the terrorist group headed by Iraq's most wanted man, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, it was claimed yesterday.
A senior Iraqi resistance source in al-Zarqawi's stronghold of Falluja said two Syrian guards had helped the 62-year-old Liverpool-born engineer to escape after he was held at a mosque on the edge of the city.
Their car was halted for routine checks by insurgents with links to al-Zarqawi's Tawhid and Jihad group before they could reach the safety of an area under American control.
According to the resistance source the Iraqis recognised Bigley, who was disguised in Arab dress.
Al-Zarqawi is said to have been incensed that his group had been compromised and ordered the insurgents to behead Bigley.
Instructions were given that the murder should be filmed and presented to resemble as closely as possible the beheadings of Bigley's American companions, Eugene Armstrong and Jack Hensley, who had been abducted with him in Baghdad three weeks earlier.
The Syrian guards were handed over to senior Tawhid and Jihad members for further interrogation and were killed later, along with as many as 18 suspected collaborators.
The details emerged a week after a Saudi described as a spokesman for Tawhid and Jihad claimed the guards had received a large sum of money from British intelligence.
A western military intelligence source said MI6 had paid a network of local Iraqis for information in the hunt for Bigley, but insisted that the principal aim had been to kill or capture al-Zarqawi.
Intelligence specialists flew out to Baghdad to assist in the search for Bigley, the source said. But the four or five raids they helped organise on "safe houses all proved fruitless.
The source said the coalition remained confident that the Jordanian-born al-Zarqawi's reign of terror would eventually be halted. "It's only when the Iraqis themselves tire of alZarqawi that he will be found, he added.
Much of the secret information-gathering work against al-Zarqawi is being co- ordinated by the Iraq Survey Group, whose intelligence experts were originally focused on the vain search for weapons of mass destruction.
The group is using agents seconded from the CIA and MI6, while the main force on the ground involved in raids on militant hideouts is the US 10th Mountain Division.
a) Intelligence knows where your group is located b) Your own people cannot be trusted c) Danger of nationalism breaking out in your group as Syrians betray Iraqis d) Need new recruits to replace those killed in the American bombing, but can they be trusted...?
Prediction: this "insurgency" will soon fall apart under the hammer blows of the US army and air force. It is nothing like Vietnam, there is more of a resemblance to gangsterism rather than a coherent military campaign.
Hmm. Sorry about the apostrophes.
He has to be getting more paranoid and if he keeps up the brutality to his own allies it is more likely someone will turn on him.
If the intell is true about the mosque why is it still standing?
Algeria strategy. Don't hit the target until the maximum number of casualties can be obtained from the strike - let 'em mass up in their "safe houses" and fatten up the kill count.
Actually I like that strategy, it seems to be working the the rest of Iraq as well.
It worked great in Algeria... reading up on the history of how Algeria beat their Islamofascist movement (and also about how Peru beat the Shining Path) really illuminates US strategy in Iraq.
reading up on the history of how Algeria beat their Islamofascist movement (and also about how Peru beat the Shining Path) really illuminates US strategy in Iraq.
Have any suggested titles to read on this subject?
Zarqawi is following the pattern Saddam used to gain and keep power: overtly kill those who challenge you and your authority---create, then rule, by fear.
Eventually, if he is dumb enough to hang around, someone will drop the dime on him.
Or any mosque, for that matter?
May all the muxlimb terrorist go to hell and stay submerged in camel dung for infinity. Patriots-R-Us Bush/Cheney 2004
According to John Loftus, Zarqawi is in Tehran. Probably means it isn't safe for him any more in Iraq.
According to John Loftus, Zarqawi is in Tehran. Probably means it isn't safe for him any more in Iraq.
You have a good handle of what is going on..
MI6 is inside Zarqawis network......he is screwed.
How much can we pay an informant to leave a bomb at Zarqawi's headquarters? Gee, what's the world coming to, when terrorists have to worry about terrorists?
"MI6 is inside Zarqawis network"
I hope they still are after the 'purge'....
Zarqawi knows if Bin Laden is alive.
Zarqawi knows where all the terror cells are in Iraq.
Zarqawi knows what country his network has sleeper cells in.
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