Perhaps. They just killed a local Sunni leader, maybe in an effort to scare Sunni's into supporting the insurgency.
(CBS/AP) Gunmen assassinated a Sunni community leader Tuesday in the former extremist stronghold of Fallujah, part of an insurgent campaign to stop Sunni Arabs from joining the U.S.-backed political process.
[...] Sheik Kamal Nazal, a Sunni preacher and chairman of the Fallujah city council, was gunned down in a hail of bullets from two passing cars as he walked to work, police Chief Brig. Hudairi al-Janabi said.
No group claimed responsibility for the killing, which occurred in one of the most tightly controlled cities in Iraq. However, it appeared part of a campaign of intimidation by Sunni insurgents against Sunni Arabs interested in promoting a political settlement to stem the violence.
[...] U.S. officials have been working hard to encourage Sunni Arabs to abandon the insurgency, and have been urging Shiite and Kurdish leaders to give major government posts to the disaffected minority. |
Changing the hearts and minds of a people not used to all these news freedoms afforded to them takes time, but they're beginning to realize the future holds wonderous things for them in a free society. The terrorists are realizing this too and trying to discourage them by resorting to their standard response: violence.
The article also mentions 52 terrorists arrested, one attack prevented, and one terrorist training camp shut down. I wonder if they used any wiretaps to get the intel for the missions involved in those arrests, the prevented attack, and the discovery of and raid of the training camp? |
