Select

This is the first paragraph of Bill Roggio's Daily Report from Baghdad on the 27th.

Iraqi and Coalition forces have been pressing hard to dismantle al Qaeda's suicide and car bomb infrastructure in and around Baghdad. Over the past week, some success has been made in attacking the leadership of these networks. Three senior commanders of al Qaeda bomb-making cells have been captured. Since Saturday, there have been no major bombings inside Baghdad.

Further down he reports on the capture of 57 insurgents/al-Queda operatives and major arms caches, on the Anbar Salvation Council and the possible cease-fire being arranged with several factions in West Baghdad.

He doesn't ignore the terrorist attacks and today has an article on the Tal Afar revenge killings, reportedly carried out by members of the police force. He concludes

Obviously, if the allegations as initially reported are true, al Qaeda was very successful in causing the security forces backlash and the resultant negative effects. If the report is inaccurate – if this was a small element of the police, or perhaps from police assigned from outside Tal Afar, or the actions of a local militia - al Qaeda still received an incredible propaganda victory.

I've listened to 2 or 3 hours of BBC Radio 4 today and have heard only one of these stories.

Embrace media realities

Michael Yon wonders why the American military can't understand what the terrorists understood years ago.

I’m finally starting to understand what so many Vietnam veterans have told me. One overarching message from the front is that our combat forces are overwhelmingly good to the Iraqis and extremely accommodating to media, but there is a deeper substrate. We simply cannot beat the terrorists if we do not learn how to embrace media realities. With all the focus on training Iraqi Security Forces, it might be worth considering training our own team, too.

AP in poo again?

Strategy Page reports that AP has been found out again.

January 5, 2007: The Associated Press has again put out an Iraq story detailing events that did not happen. This time, it involves an airstrike that, "killed a family of four during a firefight." However, according to the press desk of Multi-National Forces-Iraq, no air strike happened during that firefight, and MNF-I also reported that which six insurgents were killed by American troops in Baghdad on January 1. This is the second time in roughly six weeks that the AP has been caught fabricating events.

I can't find the original article; only bloggers carrying the Strategy Page story. Best to wait?