From Forbes:
U.S. troops conducted nearly 40 raids Friday in Iraq, taking advantage of information gleaned from searches following Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s death, a military spokesman said, revealing new information about the man believed to be poised to take the terror leader’s place.
Fearing reprisals, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki also imposed a driving ban in Baghdad and in Diyala, fearing insurgents will seek to avenge his death.
U.S. Maj. Gen. William Caldwell, the military spokesman, also said that al-Zarqawi was alive when Iraqi police arrived at the strike scene and that U.S. forces also saw him alive.
“We did in fact see him alive. There was some kind of movement he had on the stretcher and he died immediately after,” Caldwell said. “He mumbled something but it was indistinguishable and it was very short.”
He also said U.S. troops conducted 39 raids across Iraq, including some directly related to the information they obtained from the strike against al-Zarqawi. Those were in addition to 17 raids conducted after the terror leader was killed Wednesday evening.
Caldwell also said Egyptian-born Abu Ayyub al-Masri would likely take the reins of al-Qaida in Iraq, providing the full name of the militant for the first time. Al-Masri was named in a February 2005 announcement by the U.S. Central Command as a close associate of al-Zarqawi and had a $50,000 bounty placed on his head.
He said al-Masri and al-Zarqawi met each other for the first time at an al-Qaida training camp in Afghanistan in 2001, but he said al-Masri came to Iraq before the Jordanian-born al-Zarqawi.
Al-Masri is believed to be an expert at constructing roadside bombs, the leading cause of U.S. military casualties in Iraq.
In the second night of raids, Caldwell said 39 raids were carried out and that “clearly we picked up things like memory sticks, some hard drives” that would allow American forces to begin dismantling al-Zarqawi’s al-Qaida in Iraq. He said it was also helping them understand where the group’s weapons and financing were coming from.
But Caldwell also told the British Broadcasting Corp. that he did not think the terrorist organization had been decapitated.
“We have no question we dealt it a severe blow, but it can regenerate,” he told the BBC. “There are still going to be some difficult times.”
U.S. troops had carried out 17 simultaneous raids in the hours after al-Zarqawi was killed in a U.S. airstrike Wednesday near Baqouba, the capital of Diyala province. The region is in the heartland of the Sunni Arab-led insurgency and has seen a recent rise in sectarian violence. Baqouba is 35 miles northeast of Baghdad.
In announcing al-Zarqawi’s death, Caldwell said the 17 raids had “produced a tremendous amount of information,” which he described as a “treasure trove.” He also said they waited to kill al-Zarqawi before carrying out the other raids, in an apparent effort not to spook the Jordanian-born terrorist.
“We had identified other targets that we obviously did not go after to allow us to focus on al-Zarqawi. Now that we got him, we will go after them,” Caldwell said.
[my emphasis]
Quite an honor, Ayyub!—being named replacement terror leader for al Qaeda in Iraq! Though, not to rain on your parade, but I suspect it’s a bit like you’ve been named interim head coach for the Cleveland Browns after the team’s 2-9 start, and after both the head coach and GM are fired. Only, you know, instead of getting fired by a suit from the ownership group, they had 500 lb. JDAMs dropped on their offices.
You want my advice? Just play out the season, Ayyub. Keep a low profile, don’t try to do too much, stick to the short yardage game and just work the clock.
Oh. And avoid farm houses. Trust me on that one.
Damn. Just damn. It would have been nice to have him alive so we could torture him just a little bit, lefties be damned.
Or have Washington kill him with a stare, whichever.
No doubt about it. We’ve won the war in Iraq. Zarqawi’s death proves it.
Now I guess we can declare victory and getta hell out.
Can’t we?
Was it over when the Browns kicked a FG?
I feel your anger though CW. It’s a bitch when the enemy has a little success ain’t it?
Hey, leave the Browns out of it! They never hurt anybody! (Granted, for a football team, that’s not really a compliment, but they’re not a good football team.)
Congratulations Ayyub, you’re the next contestant on RUNNING MAN – IRAQ!
Well according to Ann Curry at the Today show, Ayyub has nothing to worry about. She made it very clear this morning that “there are many other terrorists groups at large and we should not celebrate the death of Zarqawi”….Then she went on to point out how in the past years the American intelligence agencies in Iraq have failed. Nice huh? I came to a point this morning where I won’t yell at the TV anymore. I just laugh…
And Carl, kiss my ass….
Hey Allah, what are you leaning towards for Ayyubs’ remix soundtrack?
I’m thinking heavy metal, something along the lines of Judas Priest “Another Thing Comin’”.
You should start a contest!
Killing Zarqawi was a bad thing.
Bush is Hitler.
Carl kicks the cat.
Abu Ayyub al-Masri: “Hey, um. Wait a minute. I don’t remember this being part of the tour here guys. When you yanked me away from my regular life of beating women in the streets of Cairo, all you said was that I would have to lop off a few heads, dial up a few car bombs and ululate every once in a while. Nothing about leading the troops fearlessly in to battle. Did you see what’s left of the THREE STORY HOUSE Zarqawi was found in? Count me out of this one o’ glorious jihadis. I am a card carrying member of the Illegal Muslims Brotherhood and I intend to stay that way……”
Jeff, you racist so-and-so.
It was no accident you chose the “Browns” for your analogy.
Now to drop a “The Drive” on Ayyub’s “team”…Elway style.
What REALLY happened in Baqouba:
EXTERIOR: Smoking ruins of demolished farmhouse.
MEDIC Bring out your dead!
ARMY RANGER Here’s one!
MEDIC Nine dinars.
ZARQAWI I’m not dead!
MEDIC What?
ARMY RANGER Nothing… There’s your nine dinars.
ZARQAWI I’m not dead!
MEDIC ‘Ere. He says he’s not dead.
ARMY RANGER Yes he is.
ZARQAWI I’m not!
MEDIC He isn’t.
ARMY RANGER He will be soon. He’s very ill.
ZARQAWI I’m getting better!
ARMY RANGER You’re not. You’ll be stone dead in a few minutes.
MEDIC I can’t take him like this. It’s against regulations.
ZARQAWI I don’t want to go on the stretcher.
ARMY RANGER Don’t be such a baby.
MEDIC I can’t take him.
ZARQAWI I feel fine.
ARMY RANGER Do me a favor.
MEDIC I can’t.
ARMY RANGER Well, can you hang around a couple of minutes. He won’t be long.
MEDIC I promised I’d be at the Insurgents. They’ve lost nine today.
ARMY RANGER When’s your next round?
MEDIC Thursday.
ZARQAWI I think I’ll go for a walk.
ARMY RANGER You’re not fooling anyone you know.
(to MEDIC) Isn’t there anything you could do?
ZARQAWI (singing unrecognizably) I feel happy… I feel happy.
The MEDIC looks at the ARMY RANGER for a moment. Then they both do a quick furtive look up and down the street. The MEDIC very swiftly brings up a club and hits the ZARQAWI. (Out of shot but the
singing stops after a loud bonk noise.)
Really, they should just go the extra step and declare that the death of Zarqawi is another sign of our failure in Iraq. The other terrorist organizations wanted him gone anyway, so we were just doing their bidding.
The new guy always thinks he can do something with the team, no matter how bad it is.
Chris Matthews: LET”S PLAY HARDBALL!
How about “Ow”?
Carl beat actus to the predictable snark/mind fart punch.
Carl W. Goss does not care about brown people.
Is it possible to die from hyperventilation? Because, if so, I submit that Jim in KC is trying to kill Andrew Sullivan!
I suspect that our ground operations in Iraq heve been producing substantial intelligence reults for some time. The killing of this bastard is a signal result, as is the intelligence coup that followed.
The message to the dead enders is clear. Martyrdom awaits. The message to Iraqis is equally clear. We’re killing your killers as fast as we can.
Most significant, it seems that the Zman was fingered by one of his own.
This kind of intelligence gathering is tremendously difficult, dangerous and time consuming, and it can’t possible be done remotely.
No, this is a great win for the boots on the ground. Turn up the heat, exploit the breaches.
Of course, nothing will suffice to calm the hysterical Carls of the left. Ignore them. We’re seeing real progress–bloody, frustrating, difficult progress.
The boots on the ground know it. It’s about time we learned, too.
That would have been in 2002, which tends to run contrary to the idea that it was all rainbows and pink unicorns in Saddam’s Iraq. But shhh.
Anybody want to take a guess at how long Zarqawi’s successor will last?
I give him 4 months at most.
Mike, great call. Let’s do an over under.
I’ll take 6 months and twelve months for a Ben Franklin.
The antiwarbots just lost one of their key allies in the War on Bush.
Poor widdle babies.
In the P.A. people find out who the new Hamas leader is by watching which house the Israeli missiles target.
A client of mine just returned from Iraq 2 weeks ago. Told me he couldn’t understand why the news from Iraq is so negative. He tells me of all the good that is being accomplished. The support of the Iraqi people. The ever increasing confidence that the Iraqi army and police are demonstrating.
The willingness of the Iraqi people to help. He tells me that the news reports seem to be coming from a different country. Sound about right doens’t it? I unfortunately had no answers for him. Different times I guess. Just how fng sad is that?
Well, I don’t have faith in our intelligence agencies.
Even still, I’m glad they hit this one outta the park.
That’s interesting. What could Zarqawi’s last words possibly have been?
“Ha! You missed m–!”
“Funny, you don’t look like a virg–.”
“…great safe house you have her–”
“… There was some kind of movement he had on the stretcher and he died immediately after,â€Â
A final bowel movement on the stretcher?
and blue skies and kites…don’t forget the blue skies and kites.
I thought the Z-man was supposed to get the bin Laden treatment, you know, keep him in double secret custody in those clandestine European prisons until Karl Rove orders him to be brought out for display a few days before the election.
Turing Word: served, as in, Mr. Zarqawi, you have been served, beeyatch. Say hi to Osama for me.
I’m sure we can look forward to lots and lots of “What’s the point, if they’re just going to replace Zarqawi with someone else?”– from the same people who want to impeach Bush and replace him with Dick Cheney.
The same folks that say Zark was nothing, he’s now a martyr, this is good for the other side, yada yada yada… were the same folks holding up his being “the renegade that had it made” as a sign of his strength, our weakness, etc. Now that he has been “retreived for a bounty” and is “nevermore to go astray” which is it?
Oh, and sorry for the Styx references. I blame Jeff and his Gerry Rafferty remarks (up post) for bringing that era back to mind.
I’m guessing it wasn’t his last words, so much as the completion of his last sentence:
“-ance.”
Or something like that. As in, “They couldn’t hit an elephant at this dist-”.
Actually it’s also like having Pete Doherty in your death pool. You know you’re going to win, you just don’t know when.
“He mumbled something but it was indistinguishable and it was very short.â€Â
“Rose-bud…”
GOOD NEWS!!!!1!!!!1!
I don’t know if anyone else picked this up, but looks like ABC has broken the Zarqawi code and outed Zarqawi’s snitch!
Sometimes, with patriotism and moral values like this, it reminds me of a certain ex of mine who whored herself around town with everyone including my pa, and fucked the shit out of bears, and stole my car and TV, and reneged on the rent. Okay, it was my first cousin, pre-op, but I loved Pedro (ahem, Jessica). What were we talking about again?
I was reading this article and I could imagine what went through Zarqawi’s head when he saw the US troops come into his room. Scared him to death. He must have seen that video about Washington.
Aw, c’mon—who names a goat “Rose-bud?â€Â
If I was George Soros, I’d be breathing a big sigh of relief right now that the Z-man didn’t get a chance to name his financiers.
With all the hard drives we captured, I think all the bad guys detonated their ordnance on their way out of Dodge. Soros? Who knows…
No, but there are blithering idiots like John Kerry and um…others that are saying we can.
Hmmmm.
The really really smart thing:
Masri should collect all of the information he can and then sell out the whole AQ in Iraq organization, and anybody working with them, all in one go.
Demand $50 million USD, a complete pardon for anything he did and a completely new identity.
I could easily see the USA going for that deal. And frankly, it’s the only deal that’ll keep Masri’s head on his neck.
So, that makes Ayyub al-Masri Terry Robiskie in this particular comparison?
If that’s the case, we’ve just got this made.
I remember the reporting on Mosul when the top aQ honcho there bit the big one. His replacement lasted 6 weeks. HIS replacement lasted about 2 weeks. HIS replacement lasted about 6 days. The next guy was dead in 48 hours.
Somewhere along the line aQ ran out of second, third, fourth and fifth string guys wanting the job.
Faster, please!
One note for Zarqawi’s replacement…
We’ll make more 500 lb GPS guided suppositories…
See you soon.