The showdown in Diyala

Bill Roggio:

As Iraqi and Coalition forces build their forces to strike al Qaeda in their base in Diyala, the terror group is hitting hard at existing combat outposts in the violence-racked province. Over the past several days, al Qaeda in Iraq has conducted several suicide strikes at U.S. and Iraqi combat outposts, police stations and Army checkpoints throughout the province.

The latest attack occurred today in the city of Khalis. A suicide bomber rammed his car into an Iraqi Army checkpoint. Ten Iraqi Soldiers were killed in the strike. This attack was preceded by a suicide strike on an Iraqi police station in Balad Ruz on Wednesday, April 25. Four police were killed and 16 wounded in the bombing. On Monday, April 23, al Qaeda in Iraq conducted a complex suicide attack on a patrol base in patrol base in As Sadah, which was followed by an small ground assault. Nine U.S. soldiers were killed and 20 wounded after the suicide bomb collapsed a building. Fifteen of the wounded soldiers later returned to duty.

As we noted yesterday, the As Sadah attack fits the mold of past al Qaeda assaults in Iraq. Al aeda started the attack with a small arms assault, then used two suicide vehicles to attempt to penetrate the outer security wall. Had the wall been breached, al Qaeda would have tried to push through with infantry. The U.S. soldiers destroyed the suicide vehicles before they could reach the perimeter of the patrol base. However "the explosive blast from the second truck ruptured the wall of the patrol base building, collapsing the second floor and, causing the majority of the Soldier casualties.

...

Al Qaeda has two goals in conducting such strikes. First, the terrorists wish to overrun a U.S./Iraqi outpost to create a propaganda victory. Al Qaeda no doubt had video crews available to film the strike, and the destruction of a combat outpost would play to two markets. Al Qaeda hopes to destroy the will of the U.S. public with such graphic images, as well as boost the morale of its own fighters and provide material for its recruiting campaign.

...

There is more. This is one of the best analysis I have seen on the situation in Diyala.

I think we will see another Tal Afar type operation where the area is isolated and then enemy forces will be attacked in detail. Diyala is where the enemy has fled to, and it is where he will have to make his last stand, if the Democrats do not bail him out.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Should Republicans go ahead and add Supreme Court Justices to head off Democrats

Washington Post: Some Democrats eye adding more justices to the Supreme Court to change its ideological bent The once-remote idea has gained the attention of liberals angered by the GOP push to remake the federal courts. Probably the easy way to defeat this court-packing scheme is for Trump to propose doing the same thing now.  It would lead to Democrat denunciations and claims that it would be wrong, thereby blowing up any attempt by them in the unfortunate event of Democrats winning a presidential election.
Read more

29 % of companies say they are unlikely to keep insurance after Obamacare

Conn Carroll: A new survey of 368 midsize to large companies found that 29% of them are considering terminating their active employee health care plans when Obamacare is full implemented in 2014. Only 71% of employers surveyed said they did not expect to drop their health coverage, while 20% said they did not know and 9% said they were planning to exit. The latest survey, conducted by Towers Watson, echoes an ealier survey by McKinsey & Co. finding that 30% of private-sector employers were planning to drop their employee health insurance coverage by 2014. When the Congressional Budget Office crunched Obamacare's spending numbers, they estimated that only 7% of employees currently covered by employer-sponsored plans would lose their plans. ... This means the cost of the health care fiasco will be hundreds of billions more than estimated by the CBO and Congressional Democrat. It is also clear that Obama's pledge that you could keep your health care plan if you wanted t
Read more

Bin Laden's concern about Zarqawi's remains

James Robbins: ... Bin Laden suggests that President Bush should allow Zarqawi’s body to be returned to his family in Jordan, but this is a matter that is up to the Jordanian government, which so far has not shown much interest in facilitating a homecoming. Bin Laden mocks King Abdullah II, calling him a Coalition minion, and asking “w hat scares you about Abu Musab after he’s dead? You know that his funeral, if allowed to happen, would be a huge funeral showing the extent of sympathy with the mujahedin.” A large crowd would definitely turn out, though most people would be on hand to demonstrate their anger and disgust. Last November’s hotel bombings in Amman , masterminded by Zarqawi, are still fresh in people’s memory, and mentioning them to Jordanians has the same visceral impact as memory of the 9/11 attacks does here. Jordan has adopted a zero-tolerance policy towards those who choose to mourn the country’s least favorite son, and four opposition members of parliament who paid con
Read more