Iraq - Zarqawi running out of suicide bombers

So he wants to form his own Army.

THE leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, is attempting to set up his own mini-army and move away from individual suicide attacks to a more organised resistance movement, according to US intelligence sources.

Faced with a shortage of foreign fighters willing to undertake suicide missions, Zarqawi wants to turn his group into a more traditional force mounting co-ordinated guerrilla raids on coalition targets.

So, how's that working out? Not good, not good at all.

The attacks raged for "hours", an Iraqi police official said, estimating that between 400 and 500 rebels took part.

The result?

At least 21 Iraqi insurgents and seven soldiers have been killed in fighting in the city of Baquba during which at least 43 insurgents were captured.

It would seem Zarqawi's army is no match for Iraq's army.

Meanwhile, Zarqawi's commanders are being killed or captured in droves.

Baghdad - Two key members of the Al Qaeda network were killed and captured in separate operations in Iraq over the past two days, US and Iraqi security sources reported Friday.

Al Qaeda's regional leader in the city of Samaraa, Hammad Al Takhy, was killed on Friday morning, while on Thursday, Al Qaeda leader Abdel Qader Makhul was captured near Tikrit, the sources said.

[...]

The operation in Samaraa came a day after the raid at a village 20 kilometres south of Tikrit, led to the capture of local Abdel Qader Makhul, Al Qaeda's chief of the Salah el Dein governorate on Thursday night by Iraqi forces.

The operation came only three days after the killings of two Al Qaeda leaders - one chief and his deputy - who were said to be the regional leaders in the area of Al Jazeera. They were killed only two days after the release of Abu Musaab el Zarqawi's latest video recording.

In a separate incident, Iraqi armed forces arrested the chief of an armed Islamist organization along with two other members of the group on Thursday, Iraqi security sources said. The three were apprehended near the city of Telafar.

There are 4 major elements that are accelerating the defeat of al Qaeda in Iraq. The Iraqi army is now able to fight on its own and is taking the lead, citizens are increasingly turning in al Qaeda terrorists, local terrorists have delcared war on Zarqawi and the new Iraqi government will be seated in the next two weeks.
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