It was the latter, as Brigadier General Anderson explains in his announcement that we killed a major car bomber in Iraq:
Abu Osama al-Tunisi was killed along with two other terrorist suspects in a U.S. F-16 strike that dropped two 500-pound laser-guided bombs on a safehouse where they were meeting, said the U.S. Central Command Air Forces.
"Al-Tunisi was one of the most senior leaders ... the emir of foreign terrorists in Iraq and part of the inner leadership circle," Anderson told a Pentagon news conference.
Al-Tunisi was a leader in helping bring foreign terrorists into the country, said Anderson, chief of staff to the No. 2 U.S. commander in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Ray Odierno.
Making it a little more clear with the larger picture:
Anderson said recent coalition operations have helped cut in half the flow of foreign fighters into Iraq, which had been at about 60 to 80 a month.
He credited the work of the Iraqi Department of Border Enforcement and U.S. teams.
Commanders have said that the increase in troops ordered by President Bush in January — and the increased operations that followed — have pushed militants into remote parts of the north and south of the country. Additional operations have been going after those pockets of fighters.
"We're having great success in isolating these pockets," Anderson said.
With our existing success in Anbar and the success in the Baghdad region of breaking up al Qaeda forces--including killing a major car bomb facilitator--means we have made it more difficult for jihadis to enter Iraq. And the ones who enter are less effective because the receiving end can't use them as easily.
We're hammering al Qaeda pretty hard in Iraq. When do they call it a day and switch focus? Or was their declaration of war on Pakistan a signal that they will abandon Iraq as the primary front in their war?
