Posted on 03/04/2007 12:12:42 PM PST by jmc1969
A suspected leader of the group Islamic State in Iraq, which has ties to the al-Qaeda terrorist network, was detained in northern Iraq on Sunday, Iraqi security forces reported. Muharib Mohammed Abdullah, aka Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, was arrested in a joint raid by Iraqi and US soldiers in the city of Duluiya.
"This is a great success for the Iraqi security forces, comparable to the killing of Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi," the Salaheddin provincial administration in the town of Tikrit said in a statement.
Abdullah is a former legal expert from the city of Balad, north of Baghdad.
The Islamic State in Iraq organization claimed responsibility Saturday for the murder of 18 policemen.
Al-Zarqawi, the former leader of the al-Qaeda terrorist network in Iraq, was killed in the summer of 2006 by a US airstrike.
I hope they don't forget to read him his rights or hurt his feelings in anyway. Perhaps he could be a convenience store clerk on Jack Murtha's block back in Penna...
Thanks. I had made some earlier replies on this post.
That report was 3 hours old when I posted it and at that point it was still unconfirmed
Update 20 minutes ago
THE COUNTERTERRORISM BLOG
http://counterterrorismblog.org/2007/03/capture_of_terrorists_in_iraq.php
Capture of Terrorists in Iraq: Big Fish Captured or Another False Alarm?
By Andrew Cochran
Multinational Forces Iraq has announced the capture of over 50 terrorists in Salah ad Din province in northern Iraq: "Soldiers from Task Force 1-319 and the 1st Battalion, 1st Brigade, 4th Iraqi Army Division detained more than 50 insurgents during three days of operations focused on terrorist cells in Abu Ajeel, Wynot, and Owja near Tikrit in Salah ad Din." Forty of the terrorists were part of an IED cell, while ten others were "involved with financing and executing attacks on coalition forces."
The local Iraqi administration promptly announced that among those captured was the head of the "Islamic State of Iraq," Muharib Mohammed Abdullah, also known as Abu Omar al-Baghdadi (Bill Roggio has more on him here). But U.S. officials have not confirmed that as of this post, hours after the Iraqi announcement, so we should be increasingly skeptical until our forces issue a confirmation or denial. It shouldn't take long since our forces were on the raid.
We've seen numerous false claims by the Iraqis of a major kill, capture, or injury of important insurgents, especially with respect to al-Qaida in Iraq leader Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, a.k.a. Abu Ayyub al-Masri. As recently as February 15, Iraqi officials claimed to have killed or wounded him, which was later proven false. I posted about the episode and linked to other episodes of false Iraqi claims. Evan Kohlmann posted on the official statement by the "Islamic State in Iraq" denying the claim of al-Muhajir's death, which stated, "Allah's enemies know that Shaykh Abu Hamza al-Muhajir... fights under the flag of the Amir al-Mumineen Abu Omar al-Baghdadi..."
Don't pop the bubbly yet.
But I want to know NOW! :-)
I'd remind you that history takes time. It is not an instant thing.
I don't care if he was a titular "head" or a "functional" one. All I care about is that he is a "dead head", like Zaraqawi.
I expect a new "job" opening posting will soon be appearing on Al Qaeda in Iraq websites:
Wanted - new leader; job security -none; experience - in surviving; perks - JDAMs at any time. Promotion opportunity - death!
Oh, and 72 virgins who look and smell like Helen Thomas, sound like Rosie O'Donnell, and have the brains of Eva Braun.
A titular head is easy to replace [it could be replaced with a large cactus or an inflatable doll], and its absence does not affect the rest of an organization too much. OTOH, a functional head is more difficult to replace, and its absence hampers the organization much more seriously. Thus I'd much rather have a functional head taken out of circulation.
Good to see you too, 4butmorethan30characters.
LOL!
Is this captured leader the last one, or are there more al Qaeda leaders?
Seems al Qaeda knows nothing about hierarchical structures -they're all leaders these days.
Prithee what in the world (or in blazes) is "'Christians' in Action?"
Appellation like "feebies" for FBI. What do the initials of the name spell? Just being obtuse on purpose.
al-Maliki Working To Arrest Iraqi Turncoats
*****************************************************
Iraq’s prime minister confirms that US and Iraqi authorities are working together to arrest and prosecute prominent Iraqis suspected of links to armed extremist groups.
Nouri al-Maliki tells The Associated Press that the coordination began at the start of this year.
His comments came in response to a question about whether lists were being prepared of senior Iraqi officials, politicians and lawmakers targeted for arrest. Several Iraqi officials have said privately that such lists were being drawn up as part of the new Baghdad security plan.
That kind of purge with the surge will send the insurgents and terrorists realing as their sanctuaries become traps. One quick way out of being jailed (or worse) is to turn in the killers. These turncoats will still be out of power, but they could live a better life - what remains of it - if they turn evidence. With this news coming out I would watch for sudden travel by Iraqi leaders and watch the Iranian and Syrian borders for those who must be running scared about now.
Lancet's Iraq Study: Bogus, Possibly Fraudulent
***************************************
Remember the study released last year by British medical journal The Lancet that ludicrously claimed more than 650,000 Iraqis had died as a result of the Iraq War? The study that was seized upon by “anti-war” groups, and is now cited as fact and repeated endlessly in the propaganda from International ANSWER, CODEPINK, Stop the War Coalition and every other loony left organization on the planet?
Now, a damning peer review has come to the conclusion that the Lancet’s study has “no scientific standing”—and may in fact be fraudulent.
Well, knock me over with a feather.
Could 650,000 Iraqis really have died because of the invasion?
One critic is Professor Michael Spagat, a statistician from Royal Holloway College, University of London. He and colleagues at Oxford University point to the possibility of “main street bias” – that people living near major thoroughfares are more at risk from car bombs and other urban menaces. Thus, the figures arrived at were likely to exceed the true number. The Lancet study authors initially told The Times that “there was no main street bias” and later amended their reply to “no evidence of a main street bias”.
Professor Spagat says the Lancet paper contains misrepresentations of mortality figures suggested by other organisations, an inaccurate graph, the use of the word “casualties” to mean deaths rather than deaths plus injuries, and the perplexing finding that child deaths have fallen. Using the “three-to-one rule” – the idea that for every death, there are three injuries – there should be close to two million Iraqis seeking hospital treatment, which does not tally with hospital reports.
“The authors ignore contrary evidence, cherry-pick and manipulate supporting evidence and evade inconvenient questions,” contends Professor Spagat, who believes the paper was poorly reviewed. “They published a sampling methodology that can overestimate deaths by a wide margin but respond to criticism by claiming that they did not actually follow the procedures that they stated.” The paper had “no scientific standing”. Did he rule out the possibility of fraud? “No.”
If you factor in politics, the heat increases. One of the Lancet authors, Dr Les Roberts, campaigned for a Democrat seat in the US House of Representatives and has spoken out against the war. Dr Richard Horton, Editor of the Lancet is also antiwar.
Thanks for the ping!
Thanks.
Great news. Taking out Al Qaeda even though they are not in Iraq.
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