Al-Qaida ousted from one Iraqi district

[FVZA_Colonel]

Source: Associated Press

BAQOUBA, Iraq - Across the walls of the villas they seized in the name of their shadow government, black-masked al-Qaida militants spray-painted the words: "Property of the Islamic State of Iraq."

They manned checkpoints and buried an elaborate network of bombs in the streets. They issued austere edicts ordering women not to work. They filmed themselves attacking Americans and slaughtered those who did not believe in their cause.

For months, al-Qaida turned a part of one Baqouba neighborhood into an insurgent fiefdom that American and Iraqi forces were too undermanned to tackle — a startling example of the terror group's ability to thrive openly in some places outside Baghdad even as U.S.-led forces struggle to regain control in the capital.

U.S. forces took back the entire Tahrir neighborhood during a weeklong operation that wrapped up Sunday in Baqouba, a city 35 miles northeast of Baghdad that al-Qaida declared last year the capital of its self-styled Islamic caliphate.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070503/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_shadow_state

[Tempest]

1. Been there, done that

As soon as the U.S. troops leave, the groups come back.

[youngdem]

2. And how exactly do they know this? Are ALL of the men dead?

Or did you find the Al Qaeda Baqouba Yearbook and cross everyone out as you killed them?

PLEASE. :eyes:

:rofl:


We got em all, Billy! Billy? BILLY?

[asjr]

3. Gee--Who are those masked men??

[lapfog_1]

4. Saddam would have never let these people into his country

and would have stomped anyone making as much trouble as al-qaida.

Not to mention the Sadr brigades.

Thanks, George! :sarcasm: :sarcasm: