Another Al Qaeda Leader Meeting Allah

Update: Fox News is reporting Al Masri was killed by Sunni members of the Anbar Awakening Council allied with the government, along with 4 foreigners and 3 Iraqis. The body has been transferred to U.S. control for identification.

There are as of yet unconfirmed reports that Abu Ayyub al-Masri, the leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq, has assumed room temperature:

The leader of al Qaeda in Iraq was killed on Tuesday in a fight between insurgents north of Baghdad, the Interior Ministry spokesman said, but the U.S. military said it could not confirm the report.

There has been growing friction between Sunni Islamist al Qaeda and other Sunni Arab insurgent groups over al Qaeda's indiscriminate killing of civilians and its imposition of an austere brand of Islam in the areas where it holds sway.

If true, the death of Abu Ayyub al-Masri would signal a deepening split at a time when the Shi'ite-led government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki is trying to woo some insurgent groups into the political process.

If true, this would be good news indeed. Read the entire article here.

(H/T Dinah Lord)

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Maliki Stumbles As The Washington Post Charts the Path to Retreat

Two items of note in this morning's news. The first involves Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki who, along with his government, has been working magic the past three weeks -- including a draft of an oil law, full political support for the aggressive pursuit of shia insurents and militias, and the announcement that he will dismiss all cabinet ministers from Sadr's party. Maliki has worked a three week sea change in the direction of Iraqi politics. Today, however, is a first real misstep. It comes in response to a raid in Basra conducted by British soldiers and Iraqi special forces on the headquarters of an Iraqi intelligence unit.

"Major Gell said the intelligence agency office was raided after an investigation earlier Sunday led to the capture of five suspected bomb makers and evidence that pointed to possible violations at the agency’s offices. In those offices, he said, “Evidence of significant criminal activity such as torture was found.”

Maliki was apparently "caught by surprise" when told of the raid. Instead of supporting the raid or waiting for a full report as to what was found, he immediately "condemned" the raid while ignoring the evidence of misdeeds.

“The prime minister has ordered an immediate investigation into the incident of breaking into the security compound in Basra and stressed the need to punish those who have carried out this illegal and irresponsible act,” said the full text of a statement issued late Sunday by his office.

Read the whole story here. I hope this was a simple stumble that is quickly corrected by Maliki. I sincerely hope this does not signal in any way a return to business as usual with Maliki caving to pressure to protect Shia government members at the expense of fairness and the rule of law. We will see as this plays out in the coming days.

The second item of note today comes from the Washington Post, who, following on the heels of yesterday's horrid anti-American hit piece, continue their drumbeat of defeatism. Today's piece is an article by Karen DeYoung and Thomas E. Ricks, "Bush Iraq Strategy Has No Option For Failure." Implicit in the article is a criticism of Bush for being unrealistic about the prospects for success in Iraq, and the article examines what seem to me to be wholly unrealistic "Murtha" options of redeployment to safe areas in Iraq, leaving the remainder of the country to flow into anarchy. Though ridiculous, it receives, of course, top billing in the WP today.

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NEW DNI: IRAN TRAINING IRAQI INSURGENTS TO USE EFP'S.

Reuters reports on the testimony before Congress of New Director of National Intelligence, Mike McConnell:

Iran is training anti-American Iraqi Shi'ites at sites inside Iran and Lebanon in the use of armor-piercing munitions blamed for the deaths of 170 U.S. troops in Iraq, the top U.S. intelligence official said on Tuesday.

In testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee, newly installed U.S. intelligence chief Mike McConnell said it was "probable" that Iranian leaders including Ayatollah Ali Khamenei were aware that weapons known as explosively formed penetrators, or EFPs, had been supplied to Iraqi Shi'ites.

But he and other senior intelligence officials told a hearing on threats to the United States that al Qaeda remained the greatest threat facing the United States and had reestablished itself in Pakistan since being driven out of Afghanistan after the September 11 attacks.

Read the whole story.

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SURGE OPERATIONS CONTINUE IN IRAQ

The DOD reports that "Five insurgents were killed, 12 terrorism suspects were captured, and hidden weapons were seized in various operations in Iraq over the last few days, military officials reported." Read the whole story.

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INSURGENTS USE HUMAN SHIELDS and children to hide behind when attacking U.S. troops.

Boys on bikes cycle backwards and forwards on a footbridge over a small canal lined with houses and groves of date palms. Women in headscarves look anxiously in groups from windows. Men walk with shopping bags. A gunman, clutching an AK-47, bobs his head around the corner of an alleyway close to a school. Once. Twice. On the third occasion a child, a boy seven or eight years old, is thrust out in front of him. The gunman holds him firmly by the arm and steps out for instant into full view of the Bradley's gunner to get a proper look, then yanks the boy back and disappears.

"That is really dirty," says Specialist Chris Jankow, in the back of the Bradley, with a mixture of contempt, anger and frustration. "They know exactly what our rules of engagement are. They know we can't fire back."

A few minutes and a few hundred metres later the performance is repeated. A woman and three small children emerge uncertainly from behind a building, little more than a shack. They stare at the approaching armour. After a few seconds they retreat from view; then the process is repeated. The third time they emerge, a fighter is crouching behind them with a rocket-propelled grenade aimed at Jankow's Bradley. The group disappears.

There is a long pause, a moment of excruciating moral conflict for the soldiers and for the gunner in particular. Not to shoot would be to imperil their own lives or those of their colleagues, both American and Iraqi. To shoot would be to risk killing civilians who have been shoved in front of their guns to shield insurgent fighters.

Please read this excellent report from the Guardian. The utter callousness and depravity of our enemy will break your heart. Compare that with the morality of our soldiers.

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THE BEE HIVE HAS BEEN SHAKEN. As the US and Iraqi soldiers continue their "surge," a string of car bombs have begun to occur. I believe this is to be expected, as the insurgents do all in their power to prevent the surge from being portrayed as successful in Western media.

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