We won update: "Insurgents Seize Key Town in Iraq: Al Qaeda in Iraq's Black Banner Flying From Rooftops," from the Washington Post, with thanks to Sr. Soph:
BAGHDAD, Sept. 5 -- Abu Musab Zarqawi's foreign-led Al Qaeda in Iraq took open control of a key western town at the Syrian border, deploying its guerrilla fighters in the streets and flying Zarqawi's black banner from rooftops, tribal leaders and other residents in the city and surrounding villages said.A sign newly posted at the entrance of Qaim declared, "Welcome to the Islamic Kingdom of Qaim." A statement posted in mosques described Qaim as an "Islamic kingdom liberated from the occupation."
Zarqawi's fighters were killing officials and civilians seen as government-allied or anti-Islamic, witnesses, residents and others said. On Sunday, the bullet-riddled body of a woman lay in a street of Qaim. A sign left on her corpse declared, "A prostitute who was punished."
Zarqawi's fighters had shot to death nine men in public executions in the city center since the weekend, accusing the men of being spies and collaborators for U.S. forces, said Sheikh Nawaf Mahallawi, a leader of a Sunni Arab tribe, the Albu Mahal, that had battled the foreign fighters.
Looks like the far west of Iraq is the epicenter of the insurgency - car-bombs in Baghdad notwithstanding. We were just in Qaim a month or so ago...suffering casualties as we cleared the area of insurgents. Why didn't we maintain a presence?
We've got 148,000 boots on the ground in Iraq. Sunni-majority towns so close to the Syrian border in Anbar province should not be left to their own devices.
Ahh the sweet utopia of Islam. How can the infidels not see the beatuy inherent in an Islamic haven?
"Zarqawi's fighters had shot to death nine men in public executions in the city center since the weekend"
That is tragic, that they don't have a proper venue in which to hold their public executions. Maybe the U.N. can build them a large soccer stadium as in Afghanistan, so they can stand up tall and proud of their Islamic nation, before they are hung or shot.
i will rejoice and i will celebrate when the marines and US Army over run quaim and take out all the trash that has apparently moved into that city.
watching the footage of dead al qaeda fighters will be something to behold. how stupid and foolish they are as to be so bold. they only invite their deaths which will surely come forthwith.
eff
"Islamic Kingdom?"
Who is the 'King?' Zarqawi?
I am wondering if this a sign of a special military strategy. Fighting forces that don't have a country behind them and that are melted within population is definitely difficult. Giving them a chance to assemble in few distinct places gives a good opportunity to study their leadership, estimate their ability to fight and finish them in more reliable way. We'll see what will happen next....
Actually, I hope they officially give them that town and then give them all kinds of media coverage and explain how it works. Hold it up in exactly the way they describe it, "Welcome to the Islamic Kingdom of Qaim".
Use it. This IS what they are fighting for, if that is your vision then move and enjoy, if that is not your vision then fight to keep it out.
Moose
These comments are very much right on target..hmm good pun. Islam=murder as they keep proving right and left. Oh perhaps we should wait till they build a hospital or school, so maybe I was a little quick to judge..HA!
Why do Christians and Jews not terrorise the radical muslim clerics in our countries. They are reported constantly in the press yet they operate with impunity.
I have just come from watching the National Grographic 4 part series on the run-in to 9/11. It's time to make radical muslims and those that spread hate feel our hatred.
It's time for Christians and Jews to take these head-on. The beginnings of this hatred comes from the mosques - supposedly holy places that spout death and disease in the form of muslim teaching.
Take back the West now before it is too late. Take back Africa before she falls to the spread of the Islamic disease.
Stand up for your beliefs now before it is too late. What kind of world will your children inherit. Is it one where you would have them living like parts of Pakistan or Afghanistan under the Taliban.
Act now!
>>>>It's time for Christians and Jews to take these head-on.
If this report is true, I'll wager that within 5 days the city will be surrounded, besieged, and the jihadis expunged. These are just wannabe martyrs that don't have the guts to blow themselves to bits. No worrys, the calvary is on the way to help them on their way.
"These are just wannabe martyrs that don't have the guts to blow themselves to bits."
Indeed, they are the most dispicable cowards on the face of the earth, just as their prophet was. One of them (michael moore's "freedom fighters")tried to escape al-jafar with some children. The U.S. troops at the checkpoint became suspicious and interviewed the kids, who said they didn't know the "man" and had gone with him because he threatened their lives. He was suspected of numerous beheadings in al-jafar.
like i said above, its only a matter of time before the USMC, the US Army, and the other services teach these peices of garbage in qaim a lesson they will never forget. they are gonna get what they deserve, and beleive you me, I HAVE PLENTY OF POPCORN AND CANT WAIT TO SEE IT. its gonna be a hoot. maybe we should start dragging dead al qaeda fighters behind Humvees anyone? its gonna be a turkey shoot. remember, we kicked their A$$es at fallujah and we kicked em out of everywhere theyve made a stand. this aint gonna be any different. i got lots of popcorn, and the shows gonna be a good one. one of my best friends helped liberate fallujah, those peices of human trash in qaim have no idea. but they are gonna find out soon. soon.
ev
"If this report is true, I'll wager that within 5 days the city will be surrounded, besieged, and the jihadis expunged. These are just wannabe martyrs that don't have the guts to blow themselves to bits. No worrys, the calvary is on the way to help them on their way." - William The Crusader
Would that it were true, William dear. Our leaders, however, seem to think that if we can just "bring them into the political process" all problems, ours, theirs, everyone's, will disappear as the industrious Iraqis find ways to fill potholes, build schools and all the while not forgetting to pray five times a day.
Because as we all know, Democracy will bring the Protestant work ethic with it, along with respect for differing points of view, including those of non-Muslims, female equality, peace and most importantly, prosperity. All we have to do is hold their hands (those brave Iraqi citizens) as the "work through the tough decisions" and realize as they "work through the tough process" of democracy that we will all benefit from it in the end, because as Natan Sharansky tells us, freedom (i.e. democracy) for other countries absolutely, positively ensures our national security as well.
No doubt about it...unfortunately.
Plain Spider,
I believe you are correct in your speculation that the US military "allowed" the Islamists to move in to Qaim. Modern strategy for dealing with an insurgency is not to try to suppress it everywhere at once, (which only serves to drive it underground) but to allow a few "safe areas" where the insurgents will naturaly regroup & concentrate. This makes finding & killing them easier in the next battle, and in every set battle the superior US-Iraqi forces wipe out all the jihadis who stand and fight. The only ones who survive are those who run away fast enough. This tactic is repeated as necessary until all the jihadis are dead. Meanwhile, the heavy handed thuggish practices of the Islamists drive away what little local support they have.
This strategy was successfully employed in Algeria against the Islamists insurgency in the 1990's, and in Peru against the Maoist Shining Path guerillas. I believe this is what the US-Iraqi forces are doing in Iraq.