Croat? I thought the Bosnian muslims and Croats worked together quite well.
July 5 issue - For Pentagon and intelligence officials, the failure to find Osama bin Laden in the rocky wastes of Afghanistan has been frustrating enough. But they are equally dispirited by their inability to locate Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi, the mysterious Jordanian terrorist who is just as ruthless and currently more active.
Operating out of Iraqa country that is home to 138,000 American soldiers and an untold number of U.S. spieshe takes gruesome pleasure in trumpeting his role in every possible atrocity. He seems to preside over a large underground network, capable of recruiting and training suicide bombers, mounting coordinated attacks and disseminating audio and video recordings to the media. Yet American forces seem baffled by his operation.
Last week Zarqawi claimed credit for a series of attacks in five Iraqi cities that killed more than 100 people, mostly civilians, and wounded 330 more. Earlier in the week Zarqawi's group, the Unity and Holy War Movement, posted an Internet video depicting the beheading of a captured South Korean businessman.
That followed a video in May that showed Zarqawi himself beheading American Nick Berg. In an audio message last week, Zarqawi brazenly vowed to assassinate Iraqi's new prime minister, Ayad Allawi. Then he taunted American forces, daring them to try to find him. "I am like a tourist in Iraq," he said. "I move along the country staying with my family and brothers."
The Pentagon responded to last week's violence by launching three targeted airstrikes in the city of Fallujah, destroying alleged safe houses for Zarqawi's fighters. But Zarqawi either wasn't there or he got away. U.S. officials say there was credible intelligence that placed Zarqawi somewhere in Iraq last weekbut not necessarily in Fallujah. Why can't they find him? One Defense official, echoing Zarqawi's own admissions, acknowledged that he is believed to have hideouts and supporters all over Iraq.
He apparently communicates by messenger and in face-to-face meetings, avoiding cell phones that are vulnerable to electronic eavesdroppers. Even less is known about his followers. Some are believed to be Kurdish militants, others foreign fighters who came across the border from neighboring Jordan, Syria or Saudi Arabia. U.S. officials say he sometimes may be secretly working with Saddam loyalists. (
pfff..