Posted on 03/19/2007 8:00:22 AM PDT by jmc1969
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki insisted sectarian killing had come to an end in his country, blaming ongoing daily violence on Al-Qaeda in a television interview Monday.
"I would say that the sectarian killing is over," Maliki said, in comments to be broadcast Monday on the eve of the fourth anniversary of the United States-led and British-backed invasion of Iraq.
"It threatened the breakout of a sectarian war, but this has been ended by two factors -- the first one is the national reconciliation on which we still insist.
"The second thing is the ability of the security services in arresting those who are provoking the sectarian unrest," he told ITV television, according to extracts released in advance of the broadcast. He added that Al-Qaeda posed the "biggest threat" to Iraq and the Middle East.
"This situation will continue but the continuation of the increasing effort of this operation will deplete all the efforts of Al-Qaeda," he said.
"We have accurate intelligence information that Al-Qaeda and the remains of the former regime are being scattered and chased and losing the secure conditions under which they used to operate.
"There are still some incidents but in comparison to what it used to be like, it is nothing in comparison to what used to happen before."
Al-Qaeda operatives with "sick minds" were targeting both Sunni and Shia areas, he said. "Al-Qaeda is still the biggest threat for Iraq and the region," he said. And he added: "Everyone agrees on this. It is not a threat towards only one part of the population.
"They are carrying out killings and crimes in Sunni areas in the same way they target Shia areas...they have sick minds. They believe that anyone who works for the government deserves to be killed."
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Mission Accomplished
He's only saying this because Bush/Cheney/Rove are making him.
/s
Terrorism for terrorisms sake. Who knew?
So who you going to believe? This guy, or Nancy? No way he knows as much about his country as Nancy does.
Leni
It definitely has dropped significantly, over 80%, and that is great news.
Dear Mr. Maliki,
This appears to be positive news. Have you had this ok'ed by the liberal media in America? They get real nasty when you suddenly pull their lolli-pop from their collective mouths!
He wasn't pulling the strings one of his chief benifactors in parliment was. With Sistani and the help of a determined US military they convinced him to go into self imposed exile.
"Al-Qaeda operatives with "sick minds" were targeting both Sunni and Shia areas, he said. "Al-Qaeda is still the biggest threat for Iraq and the region," he said. And he added: "Everyone agrees on this. It is not a threat towards only one part of the population."
Every one agrees with the above except for the Dems in the House and Senate...
Do we have any reliable stats on [terrorist and sectarian-motivated] civilian deaths in Iraq? Is there any evidence that the number of insurgents has been significantly reduced? Or are the ones who die or are captured constantly replaced?
BBC: Pessimism 'growing among Iraqis' ~~~ Times Online of UK Poll says not True.... ^
After a statement like that you deserve to go out and splurge!
Sectarian murders are easy to number. Just look at the number of dead Sunnis each day in the Baghdad morgue.
Terrorist attacks are also now attacking both Sunni and Shia since the Sunni tribes turned on al-Qaeda.
This is the first step. He's trying to get everybody on board to pick one group to hate. If he pulls this off (and it's not looking bad so far), he'll have unified his populace in the classic 'enemy of my enemy is my friend' way. The story out of Anbar yesterday on a tribe attacking a local AQ cell and busting them all is another small positive step.
Long, long road yet to travel, but this is one tiny little step in the right direction.
This will put a kink in Nancy's shorts.
Oy, time for more coffee, LOL.
Leni
In terms of how many terrorists are filling the void of those killed, I do not know about any source that can estimate this however in my own opinion there is no high rate of recruiting more terrorists. I think that the number of terrorists has been cut by over 50% and they are not able to fill the void. If the war continues for another 2 years, the terrorists will be almost wiped out, but we need to ensure that they are not coming back by helping to establish long term solutions like semi-democratic governments in the Middle East similar to that of Turkey.
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