And the winner is...Muharib Abdul Latif
Jill Carroll's abductor dies near Baghdad
By AcademicElephant Posted in Special Events — Comments (4) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
It turns out that the high-value target killed near Baghdad on Tuesday was Muharib Abdul Latif, who served as al Qaeda in Iraq's chief information officer. He also masterminded the movement of Jill Carroll around Baghdad, was the last person known to have Tom Fox in custody before his murder, and organized transport of al Qaeda recruits into Iraq from Syria. He was also in charge of the AQI media campaign of disinformation. So while he's not a "name" like al-Masri or al-Baghdadi, he is a major catch for the MNF-I and the ISF. He was killed in the course of a major offensive against al Qaeda, "Operation Rat Trap," which has been going on throughout April. Rat Trap has resulted in 87 AQI killed and 465 detained in the course of 139 individual missions, and the effort will be ongoing in May.
The confusion over Muharib's identity stems from the rather ghoulish drama that followed his identification. After MNF-I received DNA confirmation of his indentity yesterday, they informed senior levels of the Iraqi government and released the body to his tribe (al Juburi) for proper burial. While in transit to the mosque, the vehicle transporting the body was stopped by the Iraqi police, who had not yet been informed of this event. They recognized him as a high-value AQI target but did not know his specific identity, took the body back into custody and returned it to the MNF-I. By the time the SNAFU was unravelled, the rumor that it was al-Masri and/or al-Baghdadi spread. The good news is that the Iraqi police forces did their job--they identified and detained what they understood as a high-value AQI target and turned it over to the authorities.
Maj. Gen. Caldwell did not rule out the deaths of either of these gentlemen in Operation Rat Trap, but he emphasized that MNF-I is not currently in possession of a body that can be identified as al-Masri's (and they have the means to positively identify him should he be brought in), and he is not entirely convinced that al-Baghdadi is a specific individual. Stay tuned.
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And the winner is...Muharib Abdul Latif 4 Comments (0 topical, 4 editorial, 0 hidden) Post a comment »
My understanding, and correct me if I am wrong:
You have Al Qaeda (AQ), as in Bin Laden, who operate in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, etc.
Then you have "Al Qaeda in Iraq" which is the remnants of al-Zarqawi's group who share a common ideology w/ AQ (and took on the their name to get some publicity), but is operationally and financially distinct from Bin Laden's AQ, although I believe they "spiritually" support each other (and my guess is that membership between the two could be fluid).
Thus, "Al Qaeda" isn't really in Iraq, but "Al Qaeda in Iraq" is .
If you are just concerned with Jihadist who want to attack the US, then what's the difference? Well, in terms of stopping them, it is of concern that they are not operationally and financially tied.
Actually, as I write this, I realize I don't know for certain the ties between the two. Someone want to enlighten me?
that bin Laden himself was directing operations in Iraq.
Zarqawi was condemned by AQ, by Zawahiri for being too brutal, disemboweling a female prisoner, killing Iraqis to the point that start turning against AQ and hence the AQI, AQI appears to be subsidiary of AQ, in that jihadists from outside Iraq, will hook up with the AQI leadership.
I've enjoyed your comments so far. Keep up the great work! Nice to read stories passed over by the MSM. Will you be interacting with any Iraqis outside of the Green Zone? It would be nice to contrast the view from the GZ with that from Mosul or Tikrit.
AQ isn't in Irak,why do you keep trying to say they are...Irak is distracting from the real war on terror!!!!
/snark off/
"You never need a firearm,until you need it BADLY!"