al Qaida = Pussies

Al Qaida terrorists are fleeing the city of Mosul after a US/Iraqi offensive began last week. Mosul was branded as al Qaida's last major urban stronghold in Iraq, but it seems that al Qaida is more interested in running than fighting and meeting their 72 raisins in paradise. Fox News

Al Qaeda fighters and other Sunni insurgents have largely scattered from the northern city of Mosul in the face of a U.S.-Iraqi sweep, fleeing to desert areas further south, an Iraqi commander said Sunday. He vowed the forces will not allow them to regroup.

The U.S. military said Al Qaeda in Iraq was "off-balance and on the run" but remains a very lethal threat, tempering remarks by the U.S. ambassador a day earlier that the terror network was closer than ever to being defeated.

The comments came amid a flurry of attacks in Baghdad and other areas, most likely attributable to Sunni insurgents. A roadside bomb targeted a patrol of U.S.-allied Sunni Arab fighters near a mosque in northern Baghdad, killing one of the so-called Awakening Council members and wounding three others, a police official said.

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Iraqi Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Mohammed al-Askari said security forces had arrested some 1,030 people during their sweep the past week in Mosul. Another 251 detainees had been freed after being cleared of suspicion, he said.

He said some 2,000 Al Qaeda and other Sunni insurgent fighters were believed to have been in the city before the sweep was launched. He could not say how many remained in the city, but said most who managed to flee were believed to be taking refuge in deserts near the cities of Tikrit and Ramadi, further south.

"Now they are in a confused situation," he said at a joint news conference with U.S. military spokesman Rear Adm. Patrick Driscoll. "We will not allow them to reorganize themselves."

After past sweeps, Sunni insurgents have regrouped to carry out major attacks and dominate other cities to use as a planning base.

U.S. and Iraqi officials have been taking a more confident tone over security gains in Iraq in recent weeks, particularly since the high profile crackdowns in Mosul and Sadr City, and the southern city of Basra. Those sweeps aim to impose Iraqi government control in areas that have been under the control of Shiite militias or Sunni insurgents.

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Iraqi forces in Sadr City — the Mahdi Army's longtime stronghold — have found a number of large weapons caches in the district, including ones in a mosque and a hospital, a military official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information.

Among the weapons were rockets, anti-tank shells and land mines, he said.

The issue of weapons searches is a sensitive one. Under the truce, Mahdi Army fighters in Sadr City are keeping their light weapons, and the group has denied having heavier weapons like explosives in the area. Al-Sadr officials have warned the government not to be too aggressive in its searches and arrests of wanted militiamen, and the two sides have held talks on how to carry out raids without sparking tensions.