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"The Islamic Kingdom of Qaim"

Washingotn Post:

Abu Musab Zarqawi's foreign-led Al Qaeda in Iraq took open control of a key western town at the Syrian border, deploying its guerrilla fighters in the streets and flying Zarqawi's black banner from rooftops, witnesses, residents and others in the city and surrounding villages said.

A sign newly posted at the entrance of Qaim declared, "Welcome to the Islamic Kingdom of Qaim." A statement posted in mosques described Qaim as an "Islamic kingdom liberated from the occupation."

Zarqawi's fighters were killing officials and civilians seen as government-allied or anti-Islamic, witnesses, residents and others said. On Sunday, the bullet-riddled body of a woman lay in a street of Qaim. A sign left on her corpse declared, "A prostitute who was punished."

There was no immediate comment from the U.S. or Iraqi military. A U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad, Lt. Col. Steven Boylan, said he was looking into the reports.

Qaim, within a few miles of the Syrian border, has been a major stronghold for insurgents ferrying fighters, weapons and money from Syria into the rest of Iraq along a network of Euphrates River towns.

If the report is true it presents a real opportunity to destroy Zarqawi's forces. They are an organization without the ability to sustain operations in a take and hold sense. Qaim can be isolated and subjected to a cordon and search operation. If the report is true, it is a gift to US forces.