They bravely turned their tails and fled....
It seems "Al Qaeda in Iraq's" leadership has decided that discretion is the better part of valor and fled redeployed to Afghanistan and Pakistan:
The leader of the Sunni insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq and several of his top lieutenants have recently left Iraq for Afghanistan, according to group leaders and Iraqi intelligence officials, a possible further sign of what Iraqi and U.S. officials call growing disarray and weakness in the organization.
U.S. officials say there are indications that al-Qaeda is diverting new recruits from going to Iraq, where its fighters have suffered dramatic setbacks, to going to Afghanistan and Pakistan, where they appear to be making gains.
(...)
Some al-Qaeda in Iraq members blamed the group's troubles on failed leadership by its head since 2006, an Egyptian who has used the pseudonyms Abu Hamza al-Muhajer and Abu Ayyub al-Masri. Some of the fighters said they have become so frustrated by Masri that they recently split off to form their own Sunni insurgent group.
Abdullah al-Ansari, an al-Qaeda in Iraq leader in Fallujah, said in an interview with a Washington Post special correspondent that Masri had traveled to Afghanistan through Iran and designated Abu Khalil al-Souri, the pseudonym of another top leader of the group who came to Iraq in 2003, to run the organization in his absence.
"It's not known yet whether he would come back or not," he said, referring to Masri.
You can find good analysis at this Hot Air piece, so instead I want to honor the brave, brave jihadi leaders of al Qaeda with a song I think is especially fitting:
Way to inspire the troops, O Knights of Allah. 
Recent Comments