Webloggin » Ugly Terrorists Get Nabbed

Multiple good news reports in the war on Islamic terror today. I am happy to report that arrests have been made in the Karbala Iraq attack where 5 American soldiers were shot in the head after 9 to 12 English-speaking militants posed as American security forces. They traveled in vehicles that looked similar to U.S. government convoys. The only item stolen was a laptop. Qais Khazali, his brother Laith Khazali and several other members of the Khazali network were captured today by coalition forces.

Qais Khazali, seen in a 2004 photo, has been a spokesman for radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr in the past. (CNN)

The attack took place in January 2007, and at that time Iraq the Model said, ” … what I smell here is the stench of an inside job at the highest levels in Kerbala.” Also at the time of the attack, Threats Watch said,

” … the January 20 attack on soldiers from an American Civil Affairs Unit in Karbala, Iraq, was an operation planned and carried out by members of the Iranian Qods Force extraterritorial unit of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)”

Moqtada al-Sadr is supposed to be staying behind the scenes and working WITH the coalition forces and the Iraqi government. When did this cooperation start? Was there some kind of deal with Sadr to get one of his Madi army leaders, Shibani, released? If not, how does Shibani’s release effect Sadr?

U.S. forces in Iraq have freed a top aide to rebel Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr after holding him for more than two years…

U.S.-Iraq coalition leaders said in a statement that they believed Shibani “could play a potentially important role in helping to moderate extremism and foster reconciliation in Iraq,” the BBC reported.

Shibani, a leader in Sadr’s Mehdi Army, has been held since his capture two years ago in the mainly Shiite town of Najaf. The U.S. military described him at that time as a major security threat. (UPI)

It seems they may have been correct. Hot Air, The Fourth Rail, The Blotter, and others reported on this.

The coalition also found evidence linking the men to Iran and to an arms smuggling operation that included the high impact Explosively Formed Projectiles, or EFPs, according to U.S. officials.

Hot Air says:

EFPs are those super-destructive IEDs identified last month by the Bush administration as one of the biggest killers of U.S. troops in Iraq. Bush claims they’re being manufactured in Iran and supplied to the militias by the Quds Force, probably with but possibly without the knowledge of Iran’s leaders.

English Speaking Al Sadr Spokesman Arrested For Killing 5 US Soldiers, Gateway Pundit

Former al-Sadr aides arrested, Al Jazeera

Insurgents Who Killed Five GIs in Brazen Karbala Attack Captured, Neocons United

US officials are saying Iran and Syria connections have been ‘exposed.’ Via ABC’s The Blotter, Sister Toldjah

Drawing lessons from the Iraq War (1), Old Hickory’s Weblog

Light at the End of the Iraq Tunnel, Chapter XXIII, Reason Hit & Run

Read all the details of the Karbala attack here, and here.

Across the pond, the U.K. police have arrested three men in connection with the terrorist attacks in London on July 7, 2005. The U.K. has big problems with terrorists living in their midst, but they also have enacted very strong anti-terrorism laws in recent years.

Two unidentified men, aged 23 and 30, were arrested shortly before 1 p.m. at Manchester Airport in northern England in a pre-planned operation, police said in an e-mailed statement today. The men were due to catch a flight to Pakistan, police said.

Police arrested the third man, aged 26, at a house in Leeds, northern England shortly after 4 p.m. (Scott Hamilton,Bloomberg.com)

Way to go.

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