Is the Iraq Insurgency Beginning to Crack?

[Felix_Nietsche]

http://news.ft.com/cms/s/7b2a3b4e-9d4e-11d9-a227-00000e2511c8.html

Perhaps not with the crazy religious insurgents but it seems the secular insurgents (Ba'athists) are looking to negoiate. The massive purple finger election seems to have dealt them a massive blow to their morale...

[adios]

Looks like that's a possibility. I don't have the link but an article from Debka weekly:

From Debka Weekly:




Al Zarqawi Is Losing Ground
First Iraqi Army Victories, Syrian Officers Taken Prisoner


The new Iraqi army scored two important victories this week – one near Baqouba in Diala Province and the second in the northern city of Mosul. For the first time, Iraqi troops carried out successful proactive operations targeting insurgent and terrorist strongholds without US military support.

The 3rd Iraqi Brigade under the command of Brig. Gen. Khaidar Ibrahim successfully stormed the Diyala provincial command center shared by Iraqi guerilla units, and operational cells of Abu Musab al Zarqawi’s al Qaeda wing and its affiliate Ansar al Islam. After securing their target, they handed 50 prisoners belonging to all three groups to US intelligence for interrogation.

DEBKA-Net-Weekly’s military sources who disclosed this episode name the most important captive as Hamim Azawi, leader of a large guerrilla band about a hundred strong which terrorized the main northbound Baqouba-Kirkuk highway and its environs. Under their cover, guerrillas were able to slip through to the Kurdish enclave and blow up Kirkuk’s oil installations. Among them were the men who for months on end organized the assassinations of many Iraqi provincial government officials and wholesale massacres of Iraqi soldiers and police.

In Mosul, commandos of the Iraqi army’s “Wolves Brigade,” led by Brig. Gen. Abu Walid, caught the enemy by surprise. It is made up of largely Shiite fighters including exiles returned home and the first combatants trained in Hungary as part of a NATO project. They battled their way through for three days - from Monday, March 21 to Wednesday, March 23 – and finally recaptured the Sunni southwestern part of Iraq’s third largest city of the north, home to 2 million, more than half of whom are Sunni Muslims. The northern districts of this ethnically mixed city are Kurdish, but the Sunni section had been occupied for months by the same coalition of Iraqi insurgents, al Qaeda and Ansar al Islam terrorists, as were found in Diyala. Here too many prisoners were taken.



Mosul powder keg defused



Iraqi forces chalked up a second first: Never before in the Iraq war had they taken a whole section of a major city without American military aid.

According to DEBKA-Net-Weekly’s sources, they rounded up as many as 300 terrorists, among them Saudis, Algerians and Yemenis. But their most important catch was 11 Syrian intelligence officers ranging from captain to colonel. All were on active service with Syrian intelligence services and led operations against the Iraqi government and American forces.

While the Syrian officers were transferred to Baghdad for questioning, the men serving under their command signed confessions and provided detailed descriptions of the camps and training facilities in Syria where they were prepared for combat in Iraq.

Another terrorist group linked to Zarqawi, Ansar al Sunna, this week released a new videotape called “Healing for the Heart”, a sort of morale-booster effort documenting successful raids in different parts of Iraq. The tape was badly, even amateurishly, produced – unlike previous tapes. Close examination indicated that most of the footage was pieced together from recycled images of events filmed in late 2003 or early 2004. This attempt to cheer the ranks in fact betrayed the sorry state of al Qaeda’s Iraq infrastructure and its head, Zarqawi.

DEBKA-Net-Weekly’s counter-terror sources report that in the last 24 hours, panic-stricken exchanges are building up on Iraqi Islamist Websites and communications channels, mostly questions about the fate of comrades.

Syria itself provided the most damaging evidence of its complicity in the anti-American Iraqi insurgency. This week, DEBKA-Net-Weekly’s intelligence and counter-terror sources reveal that American investigators wound up their questioning of Saddam Hussein’s half-brother Sabawi Ibrahim al-Hasan al-Tikriti.

Six of diamonds and No. 36 on the US pack of 55 cards, Sabawi was head of Iraqi intelligence in the 1991 Gulf War, then director of Iraq’s notorious security services until 1996 when he was appointed senior presidential aide to Saddam.

On the night of February 14, the Syrians picked him up just hours after the murder of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri in Beirut. They found him at the base given him in the northeastern Syrian town of Hasakah for directing and financing the Iraqi Baath guerrilla revolt against US forces. Accused of involvement in the Hariri assassination and the Tel Aviv nightclub bombing, Damascus was under such extreme pressure that it made the mistake of handing Sabawi over.

[ThaSaltCracka]

thanks for the articles guys, this is indeed good news. Hopefully Europe takes notice of the Syrian Intelligence officers in Iraq and starts to see what really is going on.

[zaxx19]

Ya, like the Europeans dont know that Syria is evil as all hell...

[ThaSaltCracka]

[ QUOTE ]
Ya, like the Europeans dont know that Syria is evil as all hell...

[/ QUOTE ]I have my doubts.

[zaxx19]

I think a more important ? is how do the Europeans perceive themselves...

who are their friends...

who are their enemies...

what future alliances will develop...

Im one who believe the rift between the US and much of Western Europe is much more than a temporary hiccup.

I may or may not be correct....but there are certainly very deep issues at play.

[Felix_Nietsche]

"Hopefully Europe takes notice of the Syrian Intelligence officers in Iraq and starts to see what really is going on."
******************************************
I have to disagree here.
It matters very little whether 'Europe' takes notice or not. The USA needs to keep with the plan whether Europe agrees or not......

[ThaSaltCracka]

[ QUOTE ]
"Hopefully Europe takes notice of the Syrian Intelligence officers in Iraq and starts to see what really is going on."
******************************************
I have to disagree here.
It matters very little whether 'Europe' takes notice or not. The USA needs to keep with the plan whether Europe agrees or not......

[/ QUOTE ] I agree, the U.S. should continue on anyways, but it would be nice if Europe stoped being a douche about the whole thing.

[Cyrus]

[ QUOTE ]
Hopefully Europe takes notice of the Syrian Intelligence officers in Iraq and starts to see what really is going on.

[/ QUOTE ]

You guys believe that Syrian intelligence is behind the Iraqi insurgency? That they are any kind of serious factor in Iraq?? Whoa.

You guys are still out to lunch.

If the American military planners have the same crazy ideas about the situation on the ground, we are going to see a lot more idiocy down the road. Let's hope they haven't.

[zaxx19]

You guys believe that Syrian intelligence is behind the Iraqi insurgency? That they are any kind of serious factor in Iraq?? Whoa.

NO, and yes.

[MMMMMM]

[ QUOTE ]

You guys believe that Syrian intelligence is behind the Iraqi insurgency? That they are any kind of serious factor in Iraq?? Whoa.

You guys are still out to lunch.

[/ QUOTE ]

Cyrus I'd like to know on what basis you would claim that they are not a serious factor in Iraq. Granted they are not one of the largest factors (if they are a factor at all) but I don't believe you have any basis whatsoever for ruling out their involvement.

If anything it is likely they are involved in some way. And if they are involved in some way it is in a detrimental manner and I don't believe you could possibly know the extent of it.

[BillUCF]

Solution to insurgent problem. Sent 3/4 of US military in Iraq westward. Don't stop until we see our Israeli friends. Have the Navy pick them up in the Med.

[Cyrus]

[ QUOTE ]
I'd like to know on what basis you would claim that [the Syrians] are not a serious factor in Iraq.
Granted they are not one of the largest factors (if they are a factor at all) but I don't believe you have any basis whatsoever for ruling out their involvement.

[/ QUOTE ]

Exactly.

This is why I posted about the North Koreans in Mosul.

Now, I hear there are Cuban spies in Tikrit and Chinese spies in Falujah! And I dare anyone to prove otherwise.

/images/graemlins/cool.gif

[Cyrus]

[ QUOTE ]
Solution to insurgent problem. Sent 3/4 of US military in Iraq westward. Don't stop until we see our Israeli friends. Have the Navy pick them up in the Med.

[/ QUOTE ]

I hear that, in most bars, the toughest-looking nuts are hollow inside. Could you corroborate this?

[zaxx19]

I hear effete Liberal Europeans in France and elsewhere let the nazis into their country let the Nazis take anything in site, kill all dissidents and Jews while screwing their women.

DISCUSS

[Felix_Nietsche]

"Solution to insurgent problem. Sent 3/4 of US military in Iraq westward. Don't stop until we see our Israeli friends. Have the Navy pick them up in the Med."
*****************************************
You forgot to add raping, pillaging, and making pyramid stacks of human skulls...
Since the USA troops will get accused of these attrocities, our troops might as well commit them. /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[Cyrus]

[ QUOTE ]
I hear effete Liberal Europeans in France and elsewhere let the nazis into their country let the Nazis take anything in site, kill all dissidents and Jews while screwing their women.

[/ QUOTE ]


Actually, the nazis let into their country Liberal Europeans from France and elsewhere who took take anything in site, killed all dissidents and women while screwing the Jews.

I haven't heard anything about effete but I'll concede you're the expert.

[jokerswild]

........a clarification would help matters.

[Felix_Nietsche]

"Purple fingered election". "Ba'athists", and the *LINK* in the original post make it pretty clear which time period I'm referring to....

Plus in the political forum, people rarely argue 1000 year old politics.