Kidnapped governor of troubled Iraq province freed (Al Qaeda BLINKED!)

Reuters ^ | 15 May 2005

[Dog]

BAGHDAD - Insurgents have freed the governor of Iraq’s rebellious Anbar province after kidnapping him last week, an Interior Ministry official said on Sunday.

Raja Nawaf had been abducted with four bodyguards on the road from the town of Qaim near the Syrian border to the rebel stronghold of Ramadi by followers of Al Qaeda leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, after a dispute with the governor’s tribe, relatives had said.

Anbar province is the heartland of Iraq’s insurgency.

On Saturday, American troops ended Operation Matador, a week -long offensive in northwest Anbar aimed at rooting out guerrillas and foreign militants.

The US military said it lost nine troops and killed 125 guerrillas.

[bill1952]

I don't know. - This one has too many missing elements.

Personally, I feel as if this dude was either not kidnapped - note that he was supposedly kidnapped with 4 or 5 armed bodyguards, or that his tribe did cut a deal, but it was more of an offer that they couldn't refuse type of deal.

I would think that any Iraqis that were not already in bed with the terrorists would be fed up with having their friends and family members kidnapped and murdered.

The average Iraqi does not seem like the type of snot nosed whiny liberal who would be cowed by such people, but rather the type that would swear eternal vengeance. - And deliver.

[fightin kentuckian]

I agree with you. Not sure what took place except that a person was kidnapped and is now free. Those guys don't just turn people lose because they are great humanitarians. They got something in return for his release.

[bill1952]

Continued ability to breathe?

[SunkenCiv]

I don' t think the insurgency is as large as it likes to make itself out to be. For one thing, they've had atrocious losses during the two years since the liberation. US losses have been in excess of 1500 killed, which means the terrorists have lost at least that many, and undoubtedly a multiple of that figure.

The attack in western Iraq came as a huge surprise to the bastards, and they were slaughtered. They were not, alas, exterminated though, but the world knows now that Zarqawi A) is in western Iraq, somewhere, and B) that Syria is lending the most support for the terrorists, and of course providing the land ingress for recruits.

[Choose Ye This Day]

The insurgency is on its dying legs.

I think so, too. Last gasps of desperation. However, I believe that AQ will now return to global terrorist attacks again in earnest, since that is where they are most effective. They can't win conventional guerrilla war, but they are pretty good at cowardly strikes against defenseless innocents.

[Avenger]

I believe the governor was Sunni. It's quite likely that he was a willing "victim" and just spent the past week chilling out with his buddies smoking on a hokah watching reruns of Laverne & Shirley.

[eatdust]

The Governor was the mayor of Qaim before he became the Governor. His tribe and the terrorist work together when money talks and fight each other when it doesn't. They released him because if they did not they would not be able to use the area again.

[ArmyTeach]

#1 Are you sure? are you absolutely sure? We have fires in Alaska that we thing we put out in the fall. They lie low in the tundra under the snow during the winter, and emerge the following summer. Like insurgents?

[grey_whiskers]

Yeah, I caught that---more gutless wonders who just couldn't suck it up and fight to the death. At least Our guys gave the impression there were captures??? Lotta lonely virgins waiting for these guys to quit surrendering.

Let's be glad Bill Clinton wasn't a member or Al-Quaeda or there wouldn't be any virgins left for anyone else...

Cheers!

[cherokee1]

Are you sure ol'Bill wasn't/isn't a member? I still have a picture of him on the wall wearing that rag Yasser loaned him when he said "I am a Palestinian". And we all know he's working his way thru the worldly virgin supply yet----some of ém seem to the reborn kind as with the recent Georgia peach.