Report on Arrakis

"Members of al Qaeda understand from day one that one day they will die, and the network's structure is built on people who can be replaced,"

"But killing leaders has an impact because their replacements may not be of the same quality. The quality of al Qaeda in Iraq is no doubt being eroded,"

Al Qaida's days may be numbered , but you can never really count them out .

Just find it Satisfactory to know that these numnuts are all scared to be the next "One" in line !


(Reuters) - The killing of al Qaeda's top two leaders in Iraq this week extends a string of smaller successes that may be eroding the group's ability to threaten security, military officials and analysts said on Thursday.

World

The gains reported by U.S. and Iraqi officials against the Sunni Islamists look significant, coming at a time of vulnerability created by a March 7 election that produced no clear winner and what is shaping up to be a protracted political vacuum.

"We have arrested dozens of top figures of al Qaeda and got information from them that is very important. The arrests will continue for weeks and these weeks will be black for al Qaeda," Baghdad security spokesman Maj. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi said.

"We have information that most of the remaining leadership of al Qaeda has begun to flee Iraq. We have issued orders to close the border and check people leaving," he told Reuters.

The blows against al Qaeda came to light after the killing by Iraqi and U.S. forces on Sunday of Abu Ayyub al-Masri, al Qaeda's leader in Iraq, and Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, the purported head of a local affiliate, the Islamic State of Iraq.

U.S. officials called the killings a potentially devastating blow and Moussawi said al Qaeda in Iraq was in a "state of confusion and disarray" -- a view shared by some experts.