AWESOME piece by Michael Totten. This is the second article in his two part series. Read Part One, The Battle of Ramadi, here
RAMADI, IRAQ – In early 2007 Ramadi, the capital of Iraq’s Anbar Province, was one of the most violent war-torn cities on Earth. By late spring it was the safest major city in Iraq outside Kurdistan.
Abu Musab Al Zarqawi’s Al Qaeda in Iraq had seized control with the tacit blessing of many local civilians and leaders because they promised to fight the Americans. But Al Qaeda’s rule of Ramadi was vicious and cruel. They turned out not to be liberators at all, but the Taliban of Mesopotamia.
Al Qaeda met resistance, after a time, from the Iraqis and responded with a horrific murder and intimidation campaign against even children. The Sunni Arabs of Ramadi then rejected Al Qaeda so utterly they forged an alliance with the previously detested United States Army and Marine Corps and purged the terrorists from their lands.
Read Michael’s full article with much much more plus lots of pictures.
Related posts:
- Bad news for Dems: U.S. hands back security of Anbar Province to Iraqi’s
- Sending a clear message in Anbar
- Video: Al Qaeda in Iraq leader, al-Tunisi, blown to hell
- War looming between Kurds and Sunnis
- 21 bodies found buried at Iraq school site
- Is The L.A. Times Repeating Enemy Propaganda?
- Petraeus: No Al Qaeda Strongholds Left In Baghdad
- Iraq: Number of children used as suicide bombers increasing
- It Runs Deep: Divide Between Sunni-Shia
- Bush visits Iraq, speaks to heroes in Anbar
