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| Iraq-Jordan |
| Zarqawi down but not out post-Fallujah |
| 2004-12-09 |
| The U.S. offensive on Falluja, launched a month ago, has hurt but not broken Iraq 's insurgents and violence will go on even if Iraq holds successful elections, a senior U.S. intelligence officer in the town said Thursday. "We are very reluctant to say that we have broken their backs. We have given them a very strong jolt and disrupted their operations," Major Jim West of the Marines told Reuters in an email interview from a U.S. base outside Falluja. "Elections will not be a sudden victory against the insurgency ... We believe that insurgents will attempt to undermine each step in the elections process." West said U.S. and Iraqi forces were trying to build momentum after the Falluja assault by keeping guerrillas and their leaders on the run and depriving them of any new base. "They have been pushed backwards in the development of an insurgency from conventional operations to small attacks. So large-scale operations like the liberation of Falluja are not expected as long as insurgents cannot establish a major supply and operations hub," West said. "Therefore, the current pursuit operations are extremely important." Rebels have mounted several big attacks in the past few weeks and suicide bombers are still hitting U.S. forces ahead of an election to a new national assembly scheduled for Jan. 30. Most of the city's 300,000 residents have yet to return to homes in a city ravaged by artillery, air and tank bombardments. But when they do, rebels may return with them: "When the citizens of Falluja do start returning to their homes, we expect to see insurgents take advantage of the opportunity and attempt to blend in with the returning population," West said. The U.S. military has said it found evidence in Falluja of efforts to make chemical weapons, though no evidence of success. "They were actively pursuing a chemically enhanced explosive capability, and there is some indication that they were attempting to build an explosive that would disperse chemical agents," West said. The man who the U.S. military and Iraqi interim government say inspires rebels across Iraq -- Jordanian al Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi -- remains as elusive as ever. He was widely believed to be using Falluja as a base, if not living there. "Iraqi and multinational forces are keeping him moving. We believe that he has not been able to establish the base of logistics and operations that he had in Falluja," West said. "Keeping this pressure on him will cause him to make enough mistakes to eventually be caught. We have been able to strike very close to him by getting high officials in his network. As we continue to reduce his first string, he will be forced to replace them with less capable or less loyal followers." Zarqawi has carried out spectacular attacks and his name has proved a rallying cry for rebels not directly answering to him. "Zarqawi, and the idea of Zarqawi, provides a common call to several different causes," West said. "The concept of Zarqawi is used as the bait...by several smaller groups to recruit members and gain support." |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #1 Dan, baby, you should identify articles by professional assholes somewhere in the in-line commentary... As a Rooters "reporter", Michael Georgy is a great admirer of FF Michael Moore's Minutemen and Al Zarqi... In fact, I'd guess he figures he can get himself a Pulitzer or two if he can paint the jihadis as heros and the Jarines as evil villains. He certainly tries hard enough: Falluja insurgents fighting to the end A city lies in ruins, along with the lives of the wretched survivors Reuters' Angry Iraqi Georgy is a jihadi symp asshole. |
| Posted by: .com 2004-12-09 12:59:33 PM |