Sort of neat how the Times' report is at the back end of another piece, and is once again hiding or omitting violence in Iraq.
Typical of the lead Zionist-controlled shit War Daily!
"Al Qaeda suspects killed, US says; 30 held in Iraq, military declares" by Christian Berthelsen and Julian Barnes/Los Angeles Times October 16, 2007
BAGHDAD - The US military announced yesterday that it had killed three suspected terrorists with ties to Al Qaeda in Iraq and captured 30 more in a series of operations in central and northern Iraq between Saturday and early yesterday.
The United States still considers the group its chief obstacle to establishing security in Iraq, but US military leaders have been encouraged by the series of successful strikes.
The blows against the group in the past three days came after strikes last week near Lake Thar Thar in northern Salahaddin Province in which the military said 19 suspected leaders of the group were killed. Those strikes also killed 15 civilians.
[Or 19 men, whatever the case may be!]
On Saturday, US forces killed the three suspected terrorists in an air strike on two boats southwest of Samarra, about 60 miles north of Baghdad. The US launched the attack after a man under surveillance boarded a boat and later rendezvoused with a second craft, and people aboard began transferring weapons and equipment, military officials said. Ground forces later discovered a weapons cache at a site connected to one of the men aboard.
For much of the year, the US command in Baghdad has described operations against Al Qaeda in Iraq as its "main effort." Many units sent to Iraq as part of the US troop buildup earlier this year were stationed outside the capital an area known as the Baghdad Belts to focus on eliminating safe havens used by insurgents affiliated with Al Qaeda .
The bulk of those operations were considered successful, and the number of major bombings in Baghdad during the US "surge" showed a decline. The developments prompted military officials in September to consider whether they had been successful enough against Al Qaeda to formally label the militant group as their secondary target.
However, after a slight increase in attacks attributed to insurgents tied to Al Qaeda, military leaders shelved any proposal to formally change strategy or target priorities. And they are loath to declare victory over a resilient enemy, only to have it come back and pull off another large-scale attack, according to a senior military official based in Baghdad.
[Yup, we have defeated "Al-CIA-Duh," so NOW WE CAN LEAVE, right?
WRONG!
Are you seeing through this bullshit, readers?
So, what, for the next year we are going to get reports about how we have FINALLY WON in Iraq -- JUST IN TIME for the ELECTIONS and the NEXT WAR with Iran!!!!
Can't you smell this pile of CORPO-GOVERNMENT MEDIA BULLSHIT, readers?
I'll tell ya, I am sick of LIE after LIE after LIE from this administration and it's corporate presstitutes!!!!]
The group has proved its ability to continue to launch attacks even in a weakened state and has proved a tough enemy to vanquish in Diyala, Salahaddin and even Anbar Province, where the US military said it has had its greatest successes against the group.
[Well, when the U.S. government funds, trains and runs "Al-CIA-Duh" I guess no claim surprises me anymore!
Notice how any "Al-CIA-Duh" information ALWAYS HELPS the administration, readers?
CUI BONO, hey?]
Just one month ago, insurgents succeeded in killing Sheik Abdul Sattar Rishawi, the leader of an anti- Al Qaeda tribal group that was perhaps the United States' most high-profile ally in Al Anbar.
Asked during a recent tour of Baghdad's Karada district if the United States had reached a "tipping point" against Al Qaeda in Iraq, General David H. Petraeus said: "I wouldn't say that for the whole country. . . . There are areas where Al Qaeda is trying to come back, certainly. And where local forces are holding their own but have to go out and do more work. So again this is still very much a work in progress."
[And I'll bet it is part of a 100-years work in progress, right, General?
We ain't never leaving folks, no matter what!]
Meanwhile, as many as five civilians were killed and 20 wounded in clashes between Shi'ite militants and Western military forces in the southern city of Diwaniyah, including a number of children.
[Times doesn't tell me that!]
The fighting began yesterday with shelling of US and Polish military bases in the region, and it lasted for at least an hour. US forces launched air strikes in return. There were no immediate reports of casualties among the military, but police and hospital sources said up to five civilians were killed and 20 were wounded. It was not clear if the civilian injuries resulted from the initial militants' attacks or from the military's return fire."
[Times doesn't tell me that, either!]
Here's all the shit the Times' saw fit to spew:
"Turkey Moves Closer to an Incursion Into Iraq" by ALISSA J. RUBIN
In southern Iraq, Shiite insurgents attacked bases used by Polish, American and Iraqi forces with mortars and other guns. A spokesman for the Iraqi police and army said five Iraqi civilians were killed and 27 wounded. The American military reported four civilians dead and 12 wounded in the same attack.
[No air power used, 'eh, Times? Pffffftttt!!!]
In Salahuddin Province, a suicide bomber struck a checkpoint set up by the Iraqi police and Sunni Arab tribesmen who have joined with the government to fight Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, a homegrown extremist group whose leadership has foreign ties, according to American intelligence agencies. The bomb, near the town of Balad, killed six people and wounded eight.
In Baghdad, a car bomb in the Mansour neighborhood killed three people. Five unidentified bodies were found in the city on Monday."
Yeah, only five bodies were found, but about 35 people killed every day -- on the rise over the summer -- and the number of Iraqis killed by the surge is around 300 per day, 10,000 per month by U.S. operations in that country, with over 1.2 million Iraqis dead since the invasion.
And that doesn't include the 1,654 killed in September -- a so-called reduction in violence.
Nor does it include any reports from the U.S. military's 75 air raids a day.
Furthermore, the U.S has the Asymmetrical Warfare Group operating in country.
Or such programs such as Operation Gladio, Operation Northwoods, the Salvador Option, and the Pentagon's "Proactive, Preemptive Operations Group."
And what about the British agents who are the stars of the Prop 201 tutorial?
Did I also mention the FRU?
Oh, O.K.
No wonder people believe the surge has succeeded; they are being lied to by the MSM!]
