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November 19th,
2007 - Al Qaeda Shifts to Northern, Eastern Iraq: General |
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Al Qaeda Shifts to Northern,
Eastern Iraq: General By Agence France Presse November 19, 2007 Washington - Al-Qaeda
fighters have been pushed toward eastern and northern Iraq where violence is
now the highest in the country despite an overall decline in attacks, a
senior US officer said Monday. "What you see is that
the enemy is shifting," Major General Mark Hertling, the new commander
of Multi-National Division North, told reporters here via video link from
Iraq. A turnaround by Sunni tribes
in the western province of Al-Anbar has pushed Al-Qaeda fighters east, while
US successes in securing Baghdad have driven others north from the capital,
he said. "Whereas all types of
attacks, but specifically IEDs (improvised explosive devices) have decreased
throughout Iraq ... the north has the highest number of attacks in all of
Iraq," Hertling said. The general said bombs
account for more than half the attacks in his area of responsibility, but
their number has dropped sharply in recent months from 1,830 in June to 900
in October. "We had 466 as of the
19th of November and for the same period of time last month, as of 19th of
October, there were 520," he said. "The attacks are still
much higher than I'd like in the north but they are continuing to decrease in
numbers and scale of attack," he said. Hertling said 200 suspected
Al-Qaeda cell members arrested in raids in early November were providing good
intelligence. But he said it will be
"a very tough fight" to eliminate Al-Qaeda and other extremist and
insurgent groups in the north. © 2007 Agence France-Presse External link: http://www.metimes.com/Politics/2007/11/19/al_qaeda_shifts_to_northern_eastern_iraq_general/afp/ |