Posted on 06/15/2006 7:23:28 AM PDT by Extremely Extreme Extremist
BAGHDAD (Reuters) -- The number of U.S. military deaths in Iraq has reached 2,500, the Pentagon said on Thursday, more than three years into a conflict that finds U.S.-led forces locked in a struggle with a resilient Sunni Arab insurgency.
The news came after a senior Iraqi official in Baghdad said his country's security forces had seized al Qaeda in Iraq documents giving key information about the militant group's network and the whereabouts of its leaders.
"We believe this is the beginning of the end of al Qaeda in Iraq," national security adviser Mowaffaq al-Rubaie told a televised news conference in the Iraqi capital.
In Washington, the Pentagon also said 18,490 U.S. troops had been wounded in the war, which began in March 2003 with a U.S.-led invasion to topple President Saddam Hussein.
Tens of thousands of Iraqis have been killed.
Rubaie told Reuters earlier this year the insurgency against the U.S.-backed, Shi'ite-led government had been defeated. But violence has continued to rage across Iraq, killing hundreds of people and showing no signs of abating.
Iraqi and U.S. officials have also in the past said al Qaeda, blamed for some of the bloodiest attacks in Iraq in the last three years, was on the defensive.
They have hailed last week's death of al Qaeda leader in Iraq Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in a U.S. air raid as a major blow to the insurgency, while cautioning it would not end violence.
About 50,000 Iraqi troops, supported by more than 7,000 U.S.-led forces, launched a security crackdown in Baghdad this week aimed at putting further pressure on militants.
"The government is on the attack now ... to destroy al Qaeda and to finish this terrorist organization in Iraq," Rubaie said.
AL QAEDA HIDEOUT
He added that some documents were found in an al Qaeda hideout where Zarqawi had been, but did not make clear whether this was the place where the Jordanian militant was killed.
Holding what he said was one of them in his hand, he added:
"I present to you a document that was found in one of Zarqawi's computers that reveals many dangerous things and gives details on strategy and plans of the al Qaeda terrorist organization in Iraq."
But a copy of the unsigned document, whose authenticity could not be independently verified, did not identify the anonymous author as an al Qaeda member or give specific information about any planned attacks.
Instead, it suggested that insurgent forces were being weakened by U.S. raids and propaganda and proposed ways to counter this, for example by infiltrating Iraq's armed forces, recruiting new members and manufacturing more weapons.
It also said the best way to get out of "the crisis" was to foster conflict between the United States and another country, like Shi'ite Iran, and by stirring U.S.-Shi'ite tension in Iraq.
Rubaie said the confiscated material showed that al Qaeda's central strategy was to "divide, destroy and rule."
He added: "These documents have given us the edge over al Qaeda and (they) also gave us the whereabouts of their network, of their leaders, of their weapons and the way they lead the organization and the whereabouts of their meetings."
Al Qaeda has vowed to fight on and its new leader in Iraq, little known Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, vowed in a Web statement earlier this week to avenge Zarqawi's death.
The U.S. military said on Thursday it believed the real name of the group's new leader was Abu Ayyub al-Masri. Al-Masri, an Egyptian, trained in Afghanistan and formed al Qaeda's first cell in Baghdad.
"Military deaths in Iraq hit 2,500"
What? Al-Reuters didn't have an exclamation point and a smiley face attached to the headline?
So what Al Ja-Reuters is actually saying is that in over three years of war, we have lost ONLY 2500? While every loss hurts, can anyone name for me another war in which we lost fewer in the same time period? I don't think the media understand when they trumpet 2500 dead, most people say, "In three years of war? That's low."
Yech. Incoming drool storm from the MSM.
Ya beat me to it!
And God bless each and every one of them.
I wonder if maybe the President timed his visit to precede the inevitable announcement.
The recent leftist convention in DC planned to march from their Hilton hotel venue to the White House to "commemorate" the 2500th death. Unfortunately their convention ended when the count was 2497. So they marched anyway!
They live to feed on death.
Meanwhile, civilians saved in Iraq equals 27 million. Strange that Al JaReuters doesn't mention that.
Number of murder victims in the US in 2005 was 16,900.
Number of abortions in the US more than a million in 2005.
If the military does not watch out, it might catch up to Detroit.
Yup, it's definitely a 'culture of death' over there with the liberals!! Brace yourself for all the same old "It's all Bush's fault!", "Bush lied, innocents died", "Clinton lied, nobody died", "Bush should send his daughters to die!", "They died for oil!", yada yada yada garbage to roll out of the MSM for the next few days. And I'm sure Doonesbury will do a loving tribute to the troops for this number being so LOW, yeah, right.
Time for Rooters and the Democrats to party.
Next stop: 3000
I would have thought they would have had shots of Reurters journalists cheering and firing off pistols and doing that ululululu noise.
Hi - did you pick that line up from KOS or DU? Are you suggesting it had nothing to do with the result of Iraq FINALLY finishiing the formation of their new government and zark's death was the icing on the cake?
Reurters = Reuters.
Not that it matters.
1. When he dies.
2. When he screws up.
'Military deaths in Iraq hit 2,500' further proving that Iraq is safer than Washington, D.C or Dearborn, MI.
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