Iraq News You Won't Hear From The MSM

U.S. and Iraqi forces are succeeding decisively in Iraq, against both al Qaeda and Iran's proxies. As to al Qaeda, the scale of their defeat was sufficient by November of last year to move Osama bin Laden to sound the call of defeat, stating "the darkness [in Iraq] is pitch black." Al Qaeda is now fighting and losing in its last stronghold of Mosul, where the Iraqi Army is leading the charge against them in Operation Lion's Roar. And from an al Qaeda website comes evidence in hard numbers of just how crushing their defeat in Iraq has become.
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This update from Long War Journal on Operation Lion's Roar from Mosul:

With the Mahdi Army subdued in Basra and a cease-fire under way with the Sadrist movement in Sadr City in Baghdad, the focus of the Iraqi government has shifted to the northern city of Mosul, where al Qaeda maintains its last urban stronghold. On May 10, the Iraqi security forces launched Operation Lion's Roar in an effort to roll back al Qaeda and allied Sunni insurgent groups.

Al Qaeda in Iraq's last major ratline into Syria spans westward from Mosul into Tal Afar and the crossing point at Sinjar. The terror group is waging a brutal campaign to prevent the Iraqi Army and US forces from securing the province and to keep their supply lines to Syria open.

The Iraqi security forces started the operation by declaring a curfew in the province and conducting operations to round up wanted terrorists. In the six days since the operation began, Iraqi forces detained 1,068 suspects, according to General Riyadh Jalal Tawfiq, the commander of the Ninewa Operational Command.

Of those captured, "just under 200" Tier 1 and Tier 2 al Qaeda and Islamic State of Iraq operatives have been detained, said Major General Mark Hertling, the commander of Multinational Division North said during a briefing on May 15.

"There have been some very big fishes caught," Hertling said. Tier 1 operatives are operational leaders. Tier 2 operatives are foreign fighters or weapons facilitators, bomb makers, and cell leaders.

US and Iraqi forces have killed or captured several key al Qaeda leaders in Mosul over the past several months. Fourteen of the top 30 al Qaeda operatives who have been killed or captured in the past three months were al Qaeda leaders in Mosul, including three al Qaeda leaders from Saudi Arabia.

The release of captive terrorists and insurgents has been a problem in Mosul and elsewhere in Iraq. US military officers have complained that the Iraqi courts are ill-equipped to deal with captured suspects, as judges are bribed or intimidated to released detainees known to have conducted attacks. Or some judges are corrupt. "The bad judges here make it difficult to keep them in," Lieutenant Colonel Eric Price, the leader of the 8th Brigade, 2nd Iraqi Army Division’s Military Transition Team told The Long War Journal. Only 57 detainees have been released in Mosul since the operation began.

To counter the problems with the courts, the Ninewa Operational Command has established a special court. "Detainees will go from brigade to division and then to the NOC [Ninewa Operational Command] instead of the Iraqi Police (the usual route)," Price said. "Maybe, that will make the difference here."

The Iraqi government is also providing an opportunity for members of the insurgency to lay down their weapons. "We have decided to grant clemency to members of armed groups in return for handing over their medium and heavy weapons to the security agencies or tribal chiefs in their areas within a period of 10 days," said Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki. The prime minister flew to Mosul on May 14 to personally direct operations in the northern city.

Read the entire post. And this from Iraqi blogger, Talisman Gate:

A prolific jihadist sympathizer has posted an ‘explosive’ study on one of the main jihadist websites in which he laments the dire situation that the mujaheddin find themselves in Iraq by citing the steep drop in the number of insurgent operations conducted by the various jihadist groups, most notably Al-Qaeda’s 94 percent decline in operational ability over the last 12 months when only a year and half ago Al-Qaeda accounted for 60 percent of all jihadist activity!

The author, writing under the pseudonym ‘Dir’a limen wehhed’ [‘A Shield for the Monotheist’], posted his ‘Brief Study on the Consequences of the Division [Among] the [Jihadist] Groups on the Cause of Jihad in Iraq’ on May 12 and it is being displayed by the administration of the Al-Ekhlaas website—one of Al-Qaeda’s chief media outlets—among its more prominent recent posts. He's considered one of Al-Ekhlaas's "esteemed" writers.

The author tallies up and compares the numbers of operations claimed by each insurgent group under four categories: a year and half ago (November 2006), a year ago (May 2007), six months ago (November 2007) and now (May 2008). He demonstrated that while Al-Qaeda’s Islamic State of Iraq could claim 334 operations in Nov. 06 and 292 in May 07, their violent output dropped to 25 in Nov. 07 and 16 so far in May 08. Keep in mind that these assessments are based on Al-Qaeda's own numbers.

The author also shows that similar steep drops were exhibited by other jihadist groups, and he neatly puts it all together in these two charts:

Read the entire post. Unbelievable, is it not, that Obama or anyone who calls themself an American can pine for a defeat in Iraq and promise to toss away the amazing success we have had there.