US Forces Arrest Key Insurgents in Iraq
http://enews.voanews.com/t?ctl=D624AA:2F72C9DOfficials say the men, led by Abu Musab Zarqawi, are providing wealth
of information about the insurgency
Abu Musab ZarqawiThe U.S. military says it has arrested two key
members of the Iraqi insurgency led by Abu Musab Zarqawi. And military
officers say those two men, and other captured insurgents, are
providing a wealth of information about the insurgency, information
that is being used in counter-insurgency operations, including a major
offensive in northwestern Iraq.
The military says the recent high-level insurgent arrests have
provided "significant insight" into the terrorist network's
operations, logistics, and locations. One result is the offensive in
al-Anbar province involving more than one-thousand coalition troops,
mostly from the U.S. 2nd Marine Division.
And the division's chief of operations, Colonel Bob Chase, says newly
captured insurgents are providing still more information about their
operations, resulting in an expansion of the offensive's objectives.
"We have found with a lot of these so-called fighters that once you
capture them, they are very quick to turn to save themselves," he
said. "And they are giving us a lot of information which is providing
us more places to go ahead and attack and go ahead and develop target
packages on."
Colonel Chase reports that the mid- and higher-level insurgent leaders
are more likely to provide information than lower-level insurgents,
who, he says, are often more ideologically committed than their
leaders. "These are not ten-feet-tall dedicated, die-hard terrorists
for the most part, particularly the higher in the level," he said.
"Certainly, the low level (insurgents) appear to be people that are
dedicated to a cause, but the mid- and high-level (insurgents) are
very quick to turn on each other."
According to statements issued by the U.S. military in recent days,
that fits a pattern.
The military says that late last month troops in western Iraq captured
a key coordinator of the Zarqawi organization identified as Ghassan
Amin. The statement says the troops made the capture after two other
raids that same morning, one of which uncovered what the military says
was a car bomb factory, containing a large cache of weapons,
ammunition and explosives, as well as four cars in the process of
being fitted with bombs.
The military says local residents in the town of Rawah accuse Ghassan
Amin of terrorizing the area, stealing cars and kidnapping people for
ransom to finance terror operations. According to the military,
Ghassan Amin confessed to meeting with terrorist leader Abu Musab
Zarqawi, and to allowing him to stay with some relatives for several
days.
In another raid reported by the U.S. military, troops captured a man
known as Abu al Abbas last Friday in Baghdad. He is described as a key
planner and coordinator of attacks, including the assault on the Abu
Ghraib prison in early April, and a series of deadly car bombings in
Baghdad on April 29th that killed dozens of people.
The military says it captured many valuable documents during the
arrest, and that Abu al Abbas confirmed he was planning the
assassination of a member of Iraq's new government.
The U.S. military does not usually release such detailed information
about captures and the results of interrogations. In Baghdad, the
spokesman for the coalition's Strategic Command, Lieutenant Colonel
Michael Caldwell, says these reports are part of an effort to get out
a message about progress in fighting the insurgency, even as it
continues to carry out deadly bombings almost daily.
"What is important is that we have the Zarqawi network on the run,
basically, and Zarqawi himself is a fugitive in this country," he
said.
Lieutenant Colonel Caldwell says the insurgents still have the ability
to produce a surge in attacks, as they have during the last few weeks.
But he says they have failed in all their political objectives,
including their efforts to retain control of Fallujah and to prevent
the Iraqi election. He says, "killing innocent Iraqi civilians is not
victory."