The situation in Mosul, the last Al Qaeda stronghold in the country, has improved to much that Colvin was allowed to stroll through the streets with an Iraqi Colonel as house to house search operations were carried out.
Last Friday I joined the 2nd Iraqi Division as it supported local police in a house-to-house search for one such bomb after intelligence pointed to a large explosion today.
Even in the district of Zanjali, previously a hotbed of the insurgency, it was possible to accompany an Iraqi colonel on foot through streets of breeze-block houses studded with bullet holes. Hundreds of houses were searched without resistance but no bomb was found, only 60kg of explosives.
American and Iraqi leaders believe that while it would be premature to write off Al-Qaeda in Iraq, the Sunni group has lost control of its last urban base in Mosul and its remnants have been largely driven into the countryside to the south.
Efforts by the Iraqi Army to control the border from Syria has been instrumental in eliminating the threat of foreign fighters coming to the aid of the terrorists. According to Iraqi Brigadier General Abdullah Abdul, it is thought that less than 20 terrorists a month are now able to slip across the border.
“We’ve limited their movements with check-points. They are doing small attacks and trying big ones, but they’re mostly not succeeding.”
This report comes to us courtesy of the Times of London Online. I look forward to reading similar articles in coming weeks in The New York Times and Washington Post.
"One man with courage makes a majority." - Andrew Jackson