The month of July resulted in 17 senior al Qaeda captured or killed, including six regional emirs, seven foreign terrorist or weapons facilitators, three cell leaders, and two leaders of media and propaganda networks, including Khalid Mashadani, the media emir for al Qaeda in Iraq. Mashadani helped found the Islamic State of Iraq and admitted that its leader, Abu Omar al Baghdadi, is a creation of Abu Ayyub al Masri, al Qaeda in Iraq's leader. Brig. Gen. Bergner also stated that several hundred lower-level al Qaeda operatives were captured in July.
Several hundred al Qaeda rabble captured? That seems like an awful lot given that the total al Qaeda in Iraq may number just a couple thousand total. On the other hand, if surrendering is a recent habit, as I wondered here, it makes sense that we suddenly have a bunch in custody. I wonder how many total jihadis we have in custody?
We certainly need to keep the pressure on the enemy. If we halt offensive operations we just let them up off the mat and give them time to recover.
