Al-Qaeda leader plans an Iraq army
In a video posted yesterday [29-Apr] on an Islamist website, Ayman al-Zawahiri, deputy leader of Al-Qaeda, claimed that 800 “martyrdom operations” in three years had “broken the back of America in Iraq”.
In other words, suicide bombings in Iraq have been a resounding success. One would presume an intensification of the tactic would be in order.
However, al-Qaeda seems to be missing its recruiting targets for suicide bomb delivery-boys. The gratuities are said to be other-worldly, but potential recruits are apparently beginning to notice the leadership is not having any.
The leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, is attempting to set up his own mini-army and move away from individual suicide attacks to a more organised resistance movement, according to US intelligence sources.
Faced with a shortage of foreign fighters willing to undertake suicide missions, Zarqawi wants to turn his group into a more traditional force mounting co-ordinated guerrilla raids on coalition targets.
Since a pace of around 270 suicide bombings per year is proving unsustainable, Zarqawi is proposing mass suicide missions. Good luck to you, Abu.
Is this an indication that one result of the liberation of Iraq is damaged recruitment of those willing to fly planes into skyscrapers? You’d have to be at least as intelligent as Zacarias Moussaoui for that duty, and maybe anyone within one standard deviation of his IQ has already blown themselves up, or, like his mosque buddy Richard Reid, at least tried to light his shoe.