The Al Qaida I Recognize II
In a recent press briefing Coalition spokesman Major General Rick Lynch spent a lot of time discussing the state of Al Qaida.
This graphic, is illustrative:
It is a look at the number of Qaida leaders captured or killed–not just the low level trigger men and teenagers getting their jihad-on–these are the organizers and money men.
And is followed in the presentation by some profiles of the captured or killed.
While scrolling through the chart of captured or killed Qaida leaders I stumbled across an old friend–Abu Anas. [Glad to know he’s no longer running around.]
The platoon I was embedded with last Summer (Radio Call Sign Vengeance) had Anas on their list for an operation around Karmah, a small city a few miles east of Fallujah.
This Anas isn’t the famous one, but he was quite the bomb builder and weapons distributor from his quarry north of Karmah. He was also quite the shake down artist, running Dra Digla village like a third rate member of the Soprano family.
He wasn’t caught on that op, but his VBIED factory and munitions distribution center was blown up.
Seeing his future in the Fallujah area deminished, he moved up the river to Ramadi, where he was permanently put out of business.
Each of the names on the chart represent a victory for the units that got the job done, but those stories are rarely ever told, not because the coalition isn’t trying to tell them, but because the few reporters left in Iraq are in their bunkers, typing up reports of the latest bombing.