Insurgents Seize Key Town in Iraq: Al Qaeda in Iraq's Black Banner Flying From Rooftops

WP ^

[jmc1969]

Abu Musab Zarqawi's foreign-led Al Qaeda in Iraq took open control of a key western town at the Syrian border, deploying its guerrilla fighters in the streets and flying Zarqawi's black banner from rooftops, witnesses, residents and others in the city and surrounding villages said.

A sign newly posted at the entrance of Qaim declared, "Welcome to the Islamic Kingdom of Qaim." A statement posted in mosques described Qaim as an "Islamic kingdom liberated from the occupation."

Zarqawi's fighters were killing officials and civilians seen as government-allied or anti-Islamic, witnesses, residents and others said. On Sunday, the bullet-riddled body of a woman lay in a street of Qaim. A sign left on her corpse declared, "A prostitute who was punished."

By the weekend, however, Zarqawi's forces had fought back and taken control of Qaim, residents said. Accounts from the town described a rare, prolonged overt presence of the foreign fighters.

The Albu Mahal tribe as of Sunday remained in control of its village outside the city. However, a car bomb placed by Zarqawi's fighters in front of the home of a tribal leader, Sheikh Dhyad Ahmed, killed the sheikh and his son on Sunday, resident Mijbil Saied said.

A Zarqawi fighter said any Marines and Iraqi forces had left Qaim, with "nothing left of their crosses."

Shops selling CDs, a movie theater and a women's beauty parlor were newly burned, apparently targeted by Zarqawi's group under its strict interpretation of Islamic law.

Zarqawi's fighters had taken control of the town's hospital, one of its medical workers, Dr. Muhammed Ismail, said. The hospital's director then ordered all patients to leave, fearing the presence of Zarqawi's fighters would draw air strikes on the clinic, Ismail said.

Zarqawi fighters manned checkpoints on the four entrances to the city.

[TomasUSMC]

Tet Offensive was a strategic disaster?

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But it turned out to be an outstanding Public Opinion success and that is worth its weight in platinum, when you are fighting a democracy, especially one with an all volunteer military.

[TomasUSMC]

We should declare the right of hot pursuit into Syria, Saudi, and Iran,

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Music to my ears.

[JOE43270]

If your right then we have to have our guys do something on the ground, do you think?

[SeaBiscuit]

I like that picture 1000²

[EQAndyBuzz]

"Zarqawi's fighters had taken control of the town's hospital, one of its medical workers, Dr. Muhammed Ismail, said. The hospital's director then ordered all patients to leave, fearing the presence of Zarqawi's fighters would draw air strikes on the clinic, Ismail said. "

Well, they have that one right.

[American in Israel]

Do you realize that Israel has had over 5000 shellings into Gaza in the last few years. (This is called a peace process in the news.) So try thinking without a Main Scream Media mindset.

Do you realize that you have a lot better chance to be killed in a car accident than being killed in a terrorist attack in Israel? That is how effective terrorism really is.

What I think of these Jihadi idiots is that they are far more effective blowing themselves up and pissing off their own people than killing Soldiers. If you think victory is peace, you have already lost, Muslims have been killing fellow Muslims for 1400 years, they are not about to stop now. You want to know what spells victory?

Afghanistan sent aid to the hurricane victims.

That my friend is the sweet smell of victory.

[American in Israel]

If killing Civilians to save troops was the objective, we could have just nuked Iraq flat in 15 minutes flat and not lost a man. I think teaching morality and honor is necessary to show an example of what a good government is. You have to understand that these people once got tortured to death for just looking cross-eyed at a "Policeman". Now they have people fighting for their lives. Every single one of them that has been treated with honor and respect, every single one of them that has had their lives saved by an American Soldier, or been handed food instead of having their family members chopped up or raped to make a political point got the right political point and will not soon forget.

Arabs have a rather strong sense of loyalty, but they have also been exploited by some real loosers. The difference between a soldier and a scumbag is like night and day to them.

Blowing a town apart because some scumbags overran it is not a wise path to victory, nor is it honorable. But when the smoke clears on this battle, they will know who saved them. The husband of that dead woman or the familys of the others they killed in their brief rise to power will never forget.

[Jack Deth]

True, TomasUSMC.

The MSM can do what they do best. Lie through its collective teeth. While their numbers are tumbling and the Blogosphere gains even more ground.

The Marines wisely used Fallujah as their own private arena to decimate the bad guys to the point that AQ was inviting outside talent from Syria and Jordan to back up their fighters.

If AQ wants to repeat that disaster, let them. Now, the bad guys will no doubt be going up against trained, highly pissed off Iraqis with guns, along with Marines, Zoomies, Rotor Deads, Armor and Arty.

AQ is losing, and I believe they are aware of it. If they want to meet Allah, I'm sure there are hundreds of Marines who would be happy to arrange the appointmant.

Jack,

PS: Great tagline!

[gandalftb]

This just in from a correspondant with the enemy:

2:40pm Mecca time Sunday afternoon, the al-Qa’im correspondent for Mafkarat al-Islam reports that a short time earlier Iraqi Resistance forces in the city near the Syrian border had announced that they now have al-Qa’im under their control.

The announcement followed combat with US and Iraqi puppet army forces that raged from Saturday evening until midday Sunday and finally compelled the Americans and their local followers to withdraw from the city at 12 noon on Sunday.

Iraqi Resistance forces deployed in very large numbers throughout the city, armed with light weapons and carrying Iraqi flags to proclaim their victory.

Mosque loudspeakers were broadcasting readings from the Qur’an and chants of “God is Greatest!” to celebrate the triumph.

Witnessses in the Hasibah district in the middle of the city reported that US troops tried at noon and for two hours to get into the abandoned train station located 2km inside the city. The US forces were unable to get in, however, because of the mine fields that the Resistance had planted around al-Qa’im and because the Resistance met the attacking Americans with heavy gunfire.

Meanwhile, in a telephone conversation with the US-installed mayor of al-Qa’im, who fled from the city with American forces at noon Sunday, the puppet official said that the city had indeed fallen into the hands of the “terrorists” as he called the Iraqi Resistance, saying that they are now in control of al-Qa’im.

Then in a dispatch posted at 8pm Mecca time Sunday night, Mafkarat al-Islam reported that in a first official response, a spokesman for the Iraqi puppet army had acknowledged that the city of al-Qa’im had completely fallen into the hands of the Iraqi Resistance.

Brigadier General Rashid ‘Ali, the official spokesman for the Iraqi puppet army’s department of operations in al-Anbar province, said “yes, they [the Resistance] were able to get complete control of al-Qa’im and Hasibah after noon today, Sunday.”

The General went on to threaten that al-Qa’im was going to share the fate of al-Fallujah if it continued to be a nest for what he called “terrorists” – meaning Resistance fighters. “They [in al-Qa’im] should take heed from what happened to al-Fallujah because they will be the losers in the end,” the US-appointed general asserted.

Resistance fighter shoots down unmanned US spy plane with machine gun Sunday morning.

Iraqi Resistance fighters in al-Qa’im on the Iraq-Syria border shot down an unmanned US reconnaissance airplane over the city at 10am local time Sunday morning.

Witnesses said that an Iraqi Resistance fighter opened fire with a PKS medium machine gun, striking the spy plane and destroying it in the Hasibah area in the middle of the city.

[TomasUSMC]

If your right then we have to have our guys do something on the ground, do you think?
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Yes... we have to have our guys do something on the OFFENSIVE, IN SYRIA. Air ground sea covert ops, assassination, the whole ball of wax. Take Syria out of the game or the game will go on and on until Iran gets the toys that change the rules of the game.

The people of the United States can stand casualties and the torture of our POWs, we did it in the past, because we knew we were on the Offensive. Now we are stuck in neutral in Iraq and the American People sense there is no forward motion in the WOT.

Tagline ---=

[AmericanInTokyo]

Bomb it to smithereens.

[American in Israel]

"But look at Vietnam. We killed millions, and they kept coming. It's a war of attrition. They're not trying to win. It's just like in Vietnam.

Yeah, they kept coming by the millions, and we kept killing them by the millions. The only problem was we decimated the population of Vietnam in the first two years. After that it was Chinese Regulars we were fighing, just like now it is Syria and Iran and Palestine we are fighting.

Before Vietnam, China talked about the Human Wave attack overwhelming us easily, After Vietnam they talked ping pong. Did Vietnam win? Sheesh, it never was about Vietnam. We kicked China's arse up around their necks in Vietnam till they learned their lesson and went home. Some victory, we won every battle and left.

Now the Jihadi are learning the same lesson. That is, if they are smart enough. It is very important that we do not just wipe them out with a few bombs, we must beat them face to face, over and over till they realize they if cannot win a war on even terms, how the heck can they win a war on OUR terms? After a enough time pounding their heads on the wall, eventually even a Muslim can figure out that Allah is not delivering victory to the "great Jihad fighters". They are getting stomped over and over and over every single time they dare to stand and fight men.

We must demoralize them, not depopulate them to stop a Jihad. We can always depopulate them at will if we ever decide that they just are too stupid to learn.

Islam is a cancer, Mecca is the tumor, radiation is a cure.

[Southack]

"I'm just haunted by the pattern that foreign governments are in greater danger by being friendly to America than by being hostile."

Then stop believing in ghost stories. The Taliban was a hostile government to the U.S.

Now it's gone...reduced to fleeing into the mountains of Afghanistan, powerless to stop little Afghan girls from going to school or Afghan voters from voting in election after election.

Hussein's Ba'athists are likewise out of power now after being hostile to the U.S.

Hussein himself is in jail.

Libya, in contrast, saw the light and switched sides. Ghadafy thereby remains in power and serves as an example of what happens when you behave yourself. Ditto for Musharraf in Pakistan.

Yet somehow you've got the opposite picture in your head that somehow "haunts" you.

[dinok]

Actually, at the end of the Tet offensive we had destroyed the Viet Cong as a fighting force, (the original intent of Hanoi) and given PAVN (or NVA) a substantial defeat that took them 4 years to overcome. But what the enemy lost on the battlefield, they won in spades here at home with the defeatist press and their hippie democrat sympathizers.

I hope we don't have a repeat.

[American in Israel]

One big difference, in Vietnam, there was no danger to the hippies and looser leftists. In this war, if we loose, they will all be beheaded. Once they realize that, they will have a slightly different attitude.

[JustDoItAlways]

I don't know why everyone is upset at this.

This IS the war plan which started with Fallujah (maybe Najaf before that.)

Push the Zarqawi terrorists out west, taking back town by town that they held previously. The US just took Tal Afar and now Zarqawi's nut-jobs had to flee to Qaim.

And Qaim is the end of the road. Cause Syria doesn't want Zarqawi's boys back in Syria. Sure they will let them into Iraq but they aren't going to rehost them.

The terorists have been slowly pushed out of every safe haven left in Iraq. Hundreds of stragglers are left around the country but they have nowhere to hide without 50 of their AK-47-totting blood-thirsty brethern protecting them.

Could be the end of it (the non-Iraqi resistance that is.)

[hlmencken3]

mmm...

The previous 50 years have been different from the last five. I don't want to slide back.

[defenderSD]

"Syria is the problem ( as well as Iran). The enemy is using it as a sanctuary and Our President does absolutely nothing about it.

That is an assumption you're making based on publicly available information. We're putting a lot of pressure on Syria in various ways. There may be black ops happening in Syria, including elimination of some of the Syrian enablers of these foreign fighters. Some Syrian facilities could be blowing up inexplicably in demolitions that are just under the interest level of the MSM.

Bush cares about the troops in Iraq and you can bet that he's doing as much as he can to defend them without making the situation worse. There are reasons why we haven't executed a full-scale retaliation against Syria. Most likely that is because an attack on Syria would cost us more than we gain in the form of lost intelligence and other support from friendly elements in the Arab world. The full story of the Iraq war isn't in the newspapers and much more is happening behind the scenes that you won't read about for another 20 years.

[texianyankee]

time for, "I love the smell of napalm....."

[TomasUSMC]

Bush cares about the troops in Iraq
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I believe President Bush cares about the troops also. Nevertheless, so did LBJ and Nixon. Its not that there might be a lot of clandestine covert stuff happening in Syria, its that whatever is happening is not producing results. We are still seeing the enemy coming at us from Syria on a constant basis.

If we were to overtly attack the Syrian Regime, it would show the people of Syria and the world at large that we meant business and more importantly that we didn't give a rats A$$ about foreign public opinion when it came to defending this country.

Overt action will cause a tidal wave of response among the Syrian people. If its a tidal wave to our liking good, if not we just DESTROY IT.
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