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| Terror Networks |
| Zarqawi's death could shake al-Qaeda worldwide |
| 2006-06-10 |
| The death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi could mark a turning point for al-Qaeda and the global jihadist movement, according to terrorism analysts and intelligence officials. Until he was killed Wednesday by U.S. forces, the Jordanian-born guerrilla served as Osama bin Laden's proxy in Iraq, attracting hundreds if not thousands of foreign fighters under the al-Qaeda banner. At the same time, Zarqawi had grown into a strategic headache for al-Qaeda's founders by demonstrating an independent streak often at odds with their goals. Despite written pleas from bin Laden's deputy to change his tactics, Zarqawi alienated allies in the Iraqi insurgency as well as Arab public opinion by killing hundreds of Muslims with suicide bombings. Zarqawi, a Sunni Muslim, repeatedly attacked Shiite shrines and leaders in a bid to fuel an Iraqi civil war, instead of primarily fighting the U.S. military and its partners. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #5 Same tactics. Just different priority on what parts of the target set they want. Zark was good at making deathporn that plays well on the web and Arab TV to the kinds of nutjob Jihadi's they need for these essentially suicidal ops. Zark knew how to play the media well. Then again, thre's an old saying that "you can't rape the willing", regarding our press and promoting the terrorist's cause (as long as it damages Bush). |
| Posted by: Oldspook 2006-06-10 11:20 |
| #4 Zark wasn’t attacking civilians because he was just blood thirsty. Zark was making those attacks because pretty much after the retaking of Falluja and the Anbar sweep that followed his forces no longer had the strength to go head to head with the US forces or even the new Iraqi Army/Police forces. Zark tried to hit the regulars instead of civilians but those attempts resulted in devastating loses with little to no gains. When was the last time you hear of a police station or army base being taken by AQ successfully? Yeah I can remember a couple tries thou with double digit loses in the 60% plus range of assault force, that is just unsustainable loses. Civilian attacks were all he had left AQ was broken in mid 05’ the market bombings just gave the impression of life in a “if we cant have it nobody will” attempt to destabilize Iraq like post war Afghanistan. They failed at this as well. We have been in mop up mode on AQ for a while and Zark’s death will make it all the more easier. The real threat now is Phase 3 Iran starting with Iran’s Proxies in Iraq Sadr/Badgr militia. Maliki has already gone around telling the militia it’s disarm or “iron fist”, hell he even stated the moving of a IA division to Basra Sadr/Badr land with such orders. When Maliki starts their sweep of the militia’s Iran is going to be forced on the spot with 3 choices all losers. 1) sit back and watch their proxies in Iraq surrender and become impotent 2) have their proxies fight and attempt to support their action underground (risking getting caught and retaliated against for) while watching them be decimated like last time they tried 3) jump in and help their proxies in the fight, giving US “defensive” excuse for Phase 3 This month/summer is going to be one hell of a hot one. We are going to see I believe things moving quickly on many fronts simultaneously. We are back on the offensive. |
| Posted by: C-Low 2006-06-10 11:14 |
| #3 Dan, Do these other foreign groups have the same kind of tactics, i.e. sucide bombings of civilians, or was that just a Zarqawi thing? |
| Posted by: HV 2006-06-10 06:23 |
| #2 The strongest, he said, are North African groups in Iraq composed largely of veterans of the civil war in Algeria. So strong that they were crushed by the Algerian army in the civil war there. |
| Posted by: Apostate 2006-06-10 02:36 |
| #1 IOW, ZAWAHIRI you silly Ipan coconut, can you shoot an AK47 or SAW as ably as Zarkey did, or does Paula Abdul have to kick a coconut again??? |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2006-06-10 01:01 |