Coalition General Updates on Operation: Phantom Phoenix Against Al-Qaeda in Iraq

Armed with a collective 154,000 personnel (24,000 Coalition forces, 50,000 Iraqi Army, and 80,000 Iraqi Police), Coalition forces have launched a major assault against al-Qaeda in Iraq into what Major General Hertling describes as a territory the size of Georgia, with the stated goal of uprooting the foreign grown terrorist organization.

"Our primary mission continues to be pursuing, capturing, and destroying al-Qaeda and other extremist groups that hinder the security of the Iraqi people," Maj. Gen. Hertling, commander of Operation: Phantom Phoenix's sub-Operation: Iron Harvest, said at a press conference in Baghdad on January 9th. He explained that for the past month, Coalition forces have been gathering key intelligence that they planned to use in the upcoming attack on extremist forces, which has already netted the deaths or captures of what are described as 20 key emirs of both al-Qaeda in Iraq and allied groups in every one of the four provinces Coalition forces are currently assailing.

Among the captures, General Hertling says, is Haider al-Afri, an emir in charge of al-Qaeda in Iraq's Mosul security, as well as "the flow of foreign fighters into Iraq and for operations in western Mosul."

Other key figures include Moula Jassem, emir of terrorist group Jaish al-Islami in Kirkuk, Ali Hansel, a financial emir in Kirkuk, financiers Mohammed Omar Alawi and Leith Khalid Havi, military tactician and IED commander Abu Bilal, and Maqmoud Dalawi, who is responsible for the second Golden Mosque attack in Samarra.

While Diyala remains a hotbed of insurgency - demonstrated by a UAV recording of terrorists brutally executing a man in the region and throwing him in a ditch - it's been noted that a great deal of al-Qaeda's tactics have shifted from attacks into attempted intimidation, something the Concerned Local Citizens Groups have responded to by handing their antagonizers over to Coalition forces. In the specific instance of the executed man caught on UAV tape, the Predator later followed them back to their safehouse where Coalition forces later captured and confirmed the al-Qaeda in Iraq status of all three.

Maj. Gen. Hertling explained that this was only one of four videos he had personally witnessed detailing the nature of the terrorist organizations in Diyala, stating that one even involved the beheading of a corpse after it was shot and laid in the ditch.

"In one of the videos which we decided not to show you today, after the terrorists shot the individual and left him in the ditch, they then beheaded him," Hertling explained, which apparently was in concert with several other attacks carried out by al-Qaeda in Iraq against Concerned Local Citizens Groups, which appear to be generating a great deal of fear in the terrorist faction.

According to the general, seven heads appeared in Baqouba with Arabic writing in blood on the foreheads reading, "Join the concerned citizens and you will end up like this."

So far, the threat has not netted the results al-Qaeda in Iraq has desired.

Operation: Iron Harvest, Major General Hertling explains, is focusing on Diyala, and he pledges that local Iraqi forces are equally committed in the fight against al-Qaeda in the region.

Sources:

-Multinational Force Iraq: Major Leighton
-Multinational Force Iraq Press Release
-Measuring Stability and Security in Iraq December 2007 Report to Congress