Spec ops CO: Al-Qaida in Iraq hurt, not beaten

Spec ops CO: Al-Qaida in Iraq hurt, not beaten
By Robert Burns - The Associated Press
Posted : Wednesday May 21, 2008 17:01:53 EDT

MACDILL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. — The al-Qaida fighters in Iraq have yet to be vanquished but are increasingly running out of places where local Iraqis will accommodate the group’s extremist ideology, the Army general who oversees U.S. commando operations in the Middle East said Wednesday.

“Is he still a lethal and dangerous threat to us? Absolutely,” Maj. Gen. John Mulholland said in an interview with reporters at the headquarters of U.S. Special Operations Command, the organization with global responsibility for providing Army Green Berets, Navy SEALs and other commandos to combat terrorism.

Of the approximately 155,000 U.S. troops in Iraq, about 5,000 are special operations forces, who not only hunt and attack terrorist targets but also help train Iraqi security forces and work with local Iraqi governments.

Mulholland acknowledged that al-Qaida, which U.S. intelligence says is led by foreign terrorists but is populated mainly by local Iraqis seeking to establish a radical Islamic state, still poses a major challenge in the Mosul area of northern Iraq and has occasionally slipped back into areas like Anbar province in western Iraq.

“Do we think he can at least try to regain a foothold in Anbar province? Yes, we do think he’s trying to do that,” Mulholland said.


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