Dempsey: Al-Qaida in Iraq at its weakest

Dempsey: Al-Qaida in Iraq at its weakest
By Robert Burns - The Associated Press
Posted : Wednesday May 21, 2008 21:23:11 EDT

MACDILL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. — The al-Qaida terror group in Iraq appears to be at its weakest state since it gained an initial foothold in the aftermath of the U.S.-led invasion five years ago, the acting commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East said Wednesday in an Associated Press interview.

Army Lt. Gen. Martin Dempsey, who assumed interim command of U.S. Central Command on March 28, acknowledged that al-Qaida remains a relentless foe and has not disappeared as a serious threat to stability. But he said an accelerated U.S. and Iraq campaign to pressure al-Qaida has paid big dividends.

“Our forces and the Iraqi forces have certainly disrupted al-Qaida, probably to a level that we haven’t seen at any time in my experience,” said Dempsey, who served in Iraq in the initial stages as a division commander and later as head of the military organization in charge of training Iraqi security forces.

“They can regenerate, and do from time to time,” he added in the interview in his office at Central Command headquarters.

Dempsey was in Iraq last week on a journey that also took him to Lebanon, where he consulted with the government and military commanders on their approach to dealing with Iranian-backed Hezbollah fighters.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/05/ap_mulholland_alqaida_052108/

before we got there eh? Is that progress?