The New York Times‘s Alissa J. Rubin reports today on the “Ramadan Offensive” launched by Sunni insurgents in Iraq. Sandwiched between reports of assassinations and bombings, Rubin paints a pretty favorable picture of the Baghdad Security Plan:
Indeed. This was the goal of the Baghdad security plan, and Rubin seems to concede that the plan is having the desired effect. So far this month there have been 58 American servicemen killed in Iraq–with a little luck, this should be the lowest tally in more than a year. Rubin also adds at the end of the piece that “Eight bodies were found in Baghdad on Tuesday.” This isn’t a good thing, but put in perspective, in October of last year 1,782 unidentified bodies were found in Baghdad. Those numbers declined in the spring to a minimum of 182 in April before jumping back up in June and July, but still it’s hard not to take away from this piece that, at least in Baghdad, there is real progress being made. Also of note, Rubin gives this confusing explanation of the Islamic State of Iraq:
So the Islamic State of Iraq has ties to Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia whose leadership has foreign ties. Rubin mentions the Islamic State of Iraq in previous reports, referring to it as “another name for Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia,” and more frequently as an “insurgent umbrella group.” One gets the sense that Rubin doesn’t quite know what to make of this group, but Bill Roggio does. Go read his report from this summer, “Islamic State of Iraq – an al Qaeda front.”
