California Conservative

According to this article, the MNF-I are targeting AQI cells in Iraq. It appears as though they’re having good success:

U.S.-led coalition forces killed a suspected terrorist and detained nine others in raids targeting al Qaeda in Iraq, a military statement released Thursday said.

An operation west of Baghdad on Thursday focused on a cell making roadside bombs. Coalition forces killed one person and wounded another, the statement said. Three suspected were detained. Coalition forces detained another suspected al Qaeda terrorist in a separate raid in the Tarmiya area Thursday.

“We’re continuing to target all levels of the al Qaeda in Iraq organization and are disrupting both their leadership structure and operations,” said U.S. military spokesman Lt. Col. Christopher Garver.

In raids Wednesday, forces captured a man suspected of being the al Qaeda in Iraq administrative emir for a Baghdad neighborhood. He is thought to handle logistics and financing for terrorist cells in the area. Three people believed to be his associates were also detained.

It’s obvious that the Petraeus Offensive, aka Operation Arrowhead Ripper, is making life miserable for AQI terrorists and operations planners. The longer they’re targeted, the more terrorists that will be killed or captured, which will have a direct impact on the amount of sectarian violence they can stir up. We’ve already seen how Sunnis in Anbar have turned against AQI. While this article doesn’t speak of people turning against AQI, it talks alot about how AQI operatives have been killed or captured:

The military launched the operations “to capture or kill terrorists suspected of providing logistical support to insurgent groups.”

“Coalition troops will continue to target terrorists who have a penchant for killing coalition forces, Iraqi security forces and innocent Iraqis.” said Lt. Col. Christopher Garver, MNF-I spokesman. “Coalition forces will target secret cells wherever they are.”

It’s just a matter of time before terrorists start showing the effects of Operation Arrowhead Ripper. Based on Col. Garver’s statement, it sounds like they’ve got a pretty good handle on where these secret cells are located. Don’t think that targeting these terrorists doesn’t have alot to do with the dramatic drop in Iraqi civilian casualties, too:

At least 1,227 Iraqi civilians were killed in June along with 190 police officers and 31 soldiers, an officer at the Iraqi Interior Ministry’s operations room said. The officer spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the figures. That represented a 36 percent drop from the ministry’s May figures, 1,949 civilian deaths along with 127 police and 47 soldiers.

The more that information gets into the American people’s hands, the more difficult it becomes for Harry Reid and Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi and John Murtha to talk about the surge’s failure. If Operation Arrowhead Ripper keeps the pressure up on AQI, the bigger the drop will be in Iraqi civilian casualties, which makes it impossible to claim that our troops are stuck in the middle of an out-of-control civil war.

It’s my strong believe that once people see genuine progress being made in Iraq, the entire debate changes. If Iraq finally turns into a success story, that puts Hillary and Obama in awful shape for November, 2008. If Iraq stabilizes and the oil revenue bill passes, the Democrats will see their best issues disappear.

Another predictable consequence of the war turning into a positive is that it gives GOP presidential candidates to hammer Hillary and Obama on the issue. Let’s put it this way: If there’s a steady stream of good news from Iraq, I’d bet the ranch that Fred Thompson, Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney will put Obama and Hillary on the defensive in a big way.

Technorati Tags: AQI, Sectarian Violence, Mahdi Army, Baghdad, Anbar Province, David Petraeus, Operation Arrowhead Ripper, Fred Thompson, Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney, Barack Obama, Hillary, Election 2008

Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 5th, 2007 at 12:55 pm and is filed under Author: Gary Gross, Election 2008, Hillary, Intel, Iraq, Military. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.