Al Qaeda cleared from Mosul?

AFP:

Iraqi troops have dismantled Al-Qaeda's network in the northern city of Mosul, regarded by the US as the last urban bastion of the jihadists, the interior ministry said on Saturday.

"Operation Mother of Two Springs has enabled us to dismantle and weaken the Al-Qaeda network in Nineveh province," spokesman Abdel Karim Khalaf told AFP about the 10-day operation led by Iraqi troops and backed by the US military.

A total of 1,480 people have been detained since the operation began on May 14, he said.

"Among those arrested were important Al-Qaeda leaders, including both military commanders and intelligence chiefs, as well as members of Ansar al-Sunna, the Army of Mujahedeen and the Brigades of the 1920 Revolution," all Sunni Arab insurgent groups, Khalaf added.

US Ambassador Ryan Crocker said Iraqi troops had displayed leadership in the Mosul operation and the Al-Qaeda network was close to being completely defeated.

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Another 400 Mahdi army militia were picked up in Baghdad operations that also found large weapons caches. It is possible that violence which is already down to its lowest level in four years may decline even further.

What has turned the situation around is the maturing of the Iraqi army to the point that it can put and adequate force to space ration in a given area to dominate and it keep the bad guys from getting away. Maliki has also acted with boldness to use them in Basra, Baghdad and Mosul. He has been helped by the fact that the Awakening movement has helped the US get rid of most of the insurgents elsewhere in the country. We are now seeing more of the benefits of the Iraqi surge that took place at the same time the US surge moved in.

It is about time for Democrats to eat crow on the surge. They better do it sooner rather than later to get it out of the way well before the election. If the are still in denial in November they should have zero credibility on the subject.