Wednesday, April 5, 2006
Iraq Car Bombings Plummet
There's good news out of Iraq that the big media doesn't seem to think is newsworthy. Suicide car bombings have plummeted in the last year by a stunning 84 percent.
According to a study by the Brookings Institution, as of last May, the monthly rate of suicide car attacks stood at 136.
By December, however, that number had fallen to just 30 per month. In February - the last month for which statistics are available - car bombings were down to just 22 per month.
In fact, the plunge in car bombings has been so dramatic that rumors are flying that Abu Musab al Zarqawi - al Qaeda's Iraq operations chief who specialized in suicide car attacks - may have been fired.
According to the Associated Press, Zarqawi has "sharply lowered his profile in recent months, halting his group's Internet claims as the number of big suicide bombings in Iraq — his infamous signature form of attack — has fallen."
A source with close ties to Iraqi insurgent groups tells the AP that Zarqawi was removed as al Qaeda's Iraq commander after his deadly attack on hotels in Jordan backfired by driving up Sunni support for US-backed elections.
The wire service says that the drop in car bombings is "a possible sign of Zarqawi's waning influence."
There's good news out of Iraq that the big media doesn't seem to think is newsworthy. Suicide car bombings have plummeted in the last year by a stunning 84 percent.
According to a study by the Brookings Institution, as of last May, the monthly rate of suicide car attacks stood at 136.
By December, however, that number had fallen to just 30 per month. In February - the last month for which statistics are available - car bombings were down to just 22 per month.
In fact, the plunge in car bombings has been so dramatic that rumors are flying that Abu Musab al Zarqawi - al Qaeda's Iraq operations chief who specialized in suicide car attacks - may have been fired.
According to the Associated Press, Zarqawi has "sharply lowered his profile in recent months, halting his group's Internet claims as the number of big suicide bombings in Iraq — his infamous signature form of attack — has fallen."
A source with close ties to Iraqi insurgent groups tells the AP that Zarqawi was removed as al Qaeda's Iraq commander after his deadly attack on hotels in Jordan backfired by driving up Sunni support for US-backed elections.
The wire service says that the drop in car bombings is "a possible sign of Zarqawi's waning influence."
