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Iraq-Jordan
U.S. launches all-out hunt for Zarqarwi
2004-06-20
Sunday, June 20, 2004
The U.S. military has launched an intensive campaign to kill Abu Mussab Al Zarqawi.
What were they doing before?
U.S. officials said Central Command has concluded Al Zarqawi has sought refuge in the Sunni city of Falluja, west of Baghdad. The officials said U.S. military assets have been monitoring neighborhoods in the city for Al Zarqawi and his aides. Al Zarqawi has been termed the most lethal insurgent in Iraq. He has claimed responsibility for at least 25 suicide strikes against Iraqi and coalition targets in Baghdad and other cities. He was also believed to have carried out the suicide car bombing of an Iraqi military recruiting station in which 35 people were killed. On Saturday, a U.S. military jet fired at least two missiles into a Faluja neighborhood in an attack on a suspected Al Zarqawi stronghold, Middle East Newsline reported. At least 18 people were killed and two houses were destroyed. Officials did not say whether Al Zarqawi was one of the casualties. But they said the military believed that Al Zarqawi was in one of the buildings targeted.
Then he should be one of the casualties...
"Coalition forces conducted a strike on a known Zarqawi network safe house in southwest Faluja," Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, deputy director of coalition operations said on Saturday. "This operation employed precision weapons to target and destroy the safe house." The missile strike was the first significant coalition attack in Faluja since early June. U.S. troops left the city last month as part of a deal that paved the way for the deployment of an Iraqi security force. Officials said the military was conducting post-strike damage assessment from the missile strike in Faluja. They did not say whether or when the results would be announced.
My heinie's sore from sitting on the edge of my seat...
In Paris, Al Zarqawi’s key aide and toxin specialist was captured by French authorities after a search of nearly a year. The French Interior Ministry identified the detainee as Algerian national Said Aref, who was extradited to France from Syria last week.
Hadn't heard about that one...
Posted by:Mark Espinola

#9  Great - gather them up where we can kill them much more quickly than hunting them down like rabbits.

Problem for them is that they are unaware of our surviellance capabilities - amny times we do no act when we could have, trust me on that. Additionally, the larger an op, the more likely serious leaks will compromise it. If you bring the weapons and ammo in with the people, coordinating the assault becomes very hard - every pone of these cowboys will go at thier own pace. If you stockpile, and then bring the people in earlier, sufficient numbers and weaponry to overrun a major installation will stand out quite readily.

Plus, assaulting a modern, dug-in US military unit, with air support and artillery woudl prove to be a different animal that the Muj had never seen before.

The shackles coming off of the King of Battles is enough to turn the assault in itself - 155mm FASCAM-AP (As opposed to AT) for instant area denial, smoke (we have thermals and they do not), and good ol' HE/Frag. And you can bet that they have the targerst registered already for differing scenarios, and its dialed in to the fire control computers, all set up for the 48hr 400m x 400m blocking minefields right where they need them.
Posted by: OldSpook   2004-06-21 11:11:12 PM  

#8  SSSSShhhhhhhhh
Posted by: Frank G   2004-06-21 10:59:59 PM  

#7  
It will be the largest suicide attack since the Battle of Okinawa in 1945, and possibly the largest ever in one day.

Have they been told how that ended?
Posted by: Robert Crawford   2004-06-21 10:51:06 PM  

#6  Will they be preparing a special collectors edition of the video?
Posted by: Mr. Davis   2004-06-21 10:45:57 PM  

#5  lesson? roadblocks with concrete barriers everywhere, shoot first
Posted by: Frank G   2004-06-21 10:38:12 PM  

#4  Interesting, if lurid, stuff from my usually reliable source in Iraq. Word has it that coalition forces have learned of a coordinated insurgent plan for a series of massive go-for-broke suicide attack on the day of the handover or immediately before.
In a joint plan by all the various insurgent and terrorist factions, thousands of Tater-heads, Saddamites, and freelance jihadis of all stripes will launch themselves at US troops and installations in an all-out human wave assault. The objective will be to disrupt the handover, kill several hundred US troops in one day and, if possible, to completely overrun one or more major installations.
It will be the largest suicide attack since the Battle of Okinawa in 1945, and possibly the largest ever in one day.
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy   2004-06-21 10:27:32 PM  

#3  For some reason, I get the silly picture in my head of some Marine Colonel, having received a very explicit order to that effect, telling his Battalion to "Go Forth my children, go forth into Fallujah, and kill, kill for Kaliii!"

Okay, I did say that it was silly. Maybe it was the "Laughing Marines on Drugs" story a while back.
Posted by: Anonymous5307   2004-06-20 10:30:00 PM  

#2  Going after AlZ and Fallujah? Is it Christmas, already? And me without having done any shopping...

The last 2 sentences, about the AlZ aide Aref - needs some, uh, clarification... So French agents captured him in Syria, and then convinced Baby Assad to extradite him to France? Is that the untangled truth? Or is the reporter from PakiWakiLand? I can shout, don't hear you! Sheesh, what a mess.
Posted by: .com   2004-06-20 10:10:20 PM  

#1  If we really want to take Al Zarqawi, then we are going to have to take collateral casualties. I am sure that he surrounds himself with civilians: women, children, baby ducks, et al. This is the same situation as what Yassin did to Israel. We are going to have to announce that Al Z is a hazard to anyone's health that surrounds him. He must become a liability, rather than an asset. If we want him, we are going to have to be hard-nosed to get him, and take the heat afterword. Ball is in our court.
Posted by: Alaska Paul   2004-06-20 9:55:36 PM  

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