Thursday, May 27, 2004

Zarqawi

Well, I called it. Abu Masab Zarqawi has apparently killed enough people that the US has decided to send the elite Task Force 121 after him, as well as raise the reward for his head from $10 million to $25 million. (Hat tip: History's End)

The fact that this step has taken so long is just a shame. Zarqawi's kill total is either approaching or already over 1,000 people in the past year alone. During that year, his Islamist group al-Tawhid (a derivitive of Ansar al-Islam) has conducted many strategic and tactical operations, from setting up terror cells in Turkey, Jordan, Syria, and North Africa, to pulling off devastating attacks within Iraq and elsewhere. It was Zarqawi's affiliates in North Africa that pulled off the 3/11 Madrid train bombing, the Irbil bombings, attempted ricin attacks in the London Underground and in Paris, the execution of Nick Berg, and the most under reported story of the past month, the Amman Chemical Plot which would have killed thousands and decapitated the Jordanian government and a couple dozen other attacks.

Both US and European officials are calling him the new top al-Qaeda operations chief. And if anyone is wondering who the 7 people wanted by the DOJ are in connection to the terror alert, they can go here.