Update on Iraq... more dead terrorists

The incident I mentioned last night in my multi-item post regarding the possible imminent capture of Zarqawi appears to have been a false alarm based on this post from Chester.

What is particularly interesting about the information Chester provides is the characterization by Coalition commanders of the 'Zarqawi' fighers. Lt. Colonel Mark Smith the battlion commander at Mahmudiyah had the following to say:

"Lieutenant Colonel Mark Smith, the commander of the 2nd Battalion based at Mahmudiyah, said: "We have insurgents returning home from Fallujah and finding us on the way. With Fallujah over, the action has moved here. This is now the most dangerous place in Iraq. Increasingly, we are coming up against Zarqawi's people; they are better armed and better trained."

"Lt-Col Smith had just returned from an all-night operation, and still had camouflage paint on his face. The raid, on a farm, followed information that Zarqawi was hiding there. They did not find him, but, Lt-Col Smith said, they caught two senior militant leaders."

"We have had lots of engagements and we have killed a lot. We keep on getting reports that Zarqawi is in this area. If he is we shall find him and we shall capture or kill him."

Another report in the same post:

"Lieutenant Michael Loring Mayne, who was involved in the battle at Yusufiyah, said: "What is very noticeable is that we are coming across well-trained fighters. In Yusufiyah they carried out a fighting withdrawal. That is not easy; it needs skill and discipline. We faced some pretty fierce and sustained fire and some of it was at pretty close quarters, some of my guys were pretty badly hurt."

Belmont also has this more recent post up with some interesting further anecdotal evidence that we have - as we like to say in Texas - 'opened a can of whup ass' on these murderous thugs.

"We know that some of them headed in our direction before the Falluja battle," he said, citing intelligence reports. "We're going to try to isolate them. Then we're going to bounce all over. We're not going to hit just one area. We're going to hit a multiplicity of targets so that they have no safe haven that they can go to."

Military officials in the province said nearly 250 insurgents had been captured there in the past three weeks, including 32 on Tuesday in the Jabella raids.

Our forces are killing and capturing thousands of these jerks. More intelligence. Fewer enemy combatants. More evidence to 'fence sitters' in Iraq that we are not fooling around and that the 'insurgency' is doomed.

Given that we have learned from captured terrorists that their operation is being run out of Syria it is interesting to note that Syria is jumping up and down trying to get Israel to discuss peace but Israel is saying 'no thanks' Bashir... not until you stop supporting terror. Haaretz has an article on this today.

The re-election of President Bush is reverberating throughout the world but it is particularly having an impact in the Middle East.

Four more years of lower taxes and dead terrorists........ you gotta love it (unless you are a terrorist).