Al Qaeda In Iraq Continues Getting Hammered

The U.S. military said on Thursday it had killed a senior al Qaeda official in Iraq who it accused of involvement in the kidnapping of Americans Jill Carroll and Tom Fox and other foreigners.

But the military said it had no information to support claims by Iraq's Interior Ministry that Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, another senior al Qaeda figure in Iraq, had been killed.

Chief military spokesman Major-General William Caldwell identified Muharib Abdul Latif al-Jubouri, the "senior minister of information" for al Qaeda in Iraq, as a key figure in the separate abductions of Carroll and Fox.

"We killed him ... west of Taji on the first day of May," Caldwell told a news conference, referring to a town north of the capital Baghdad.

Carroll, a journalist with the Christian Science Monitor newspaper, was abducted in January 2006 and held for 82 days before she was released. Christian peace activist Fox was kidnapped in November 2005 and his body was found in March 2006.

Caldwell said Jubouri, whose body had been identified through DNA tests, had also been involved in the kidnapping of two Germans, whom he did not identify but said they were captured in 2006.

"When we can pick up someone like that who has that kind of history in being associated with the kidnapping and killing of foreign nationals in this country, that's significant," he said.

But he had no information on the reported deaths this week of Baghdadi or Abu Ayyub al-Masri, the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, which U.S. President George W. Bush described on Wednesday as "public enemy number one in Iraq".

Each time the Democrats talk about how they want to set timetables to cut and run from Iraq, I wonder if they've bothered to read the reports from the military or even reviewed their copy of the New York Times that indicates that al Qaeda continues operating from Iraq? If they do know that al Qaeda is operating in Iraq, then why are they so quick to cut and run considering how al Qaeda was behind the 9/11 terrorist attacks? Do they really want to give al Qaeda free reign over a country in the heart of a region that is of strategic interest to the US?

That's why so much of the Democrat argument is based purely on partisan domestic politics, and not the actual conflict in Iraq. To the Democrat leadership, they see nothing but opportunity to score points and win elections.

UPDATE:
Confederate Yankee has running updates on the decimation of al Qaeda leadership in Iraq, and how the terrorist group seems to have run afoul of various clans and even seems to have problems in-house. May its problems only multiply.

It would also appear that another major al Qaeda figure was eliminated, and Hot Air sums up the worst jobs in Iraq at present:

Worst job in Iraq: Being “second in command in al Qaeda.” Second worst job in Iraq: Being first in command in al Qaeda. Right after that, being a “senior figure in al Qaeda”. All of these jobs can be bad for your health.

The latest to find this out: Omar al-Baghdadi, whom Iraqi media outlets are claiming has been eliminated. There's no confirmation from MNF-I or the Iraqi government, so take the latter claim with a grain of salt.