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U.S. Expects Al-Qaida to 'Lash Out' in Iraq NewsMax.com Wires BAGHDAD -- The U.S. military expects al Qaeda in Iraq to strike back with "spectacular attacks" after a major offensive in and around Baghdad disrupted the network's activities, a military spokesman said on Wednesday. Brigadier-General Kevin Bergner said 26 high-level al Qaeda in Iraq leaders had been killed or captured in May and June. "Over the past two months our collective efforts against the al Qaeda leadership have begun to disrupt their networks and safe havens," Bergner told a news conference. "We fully expect al Qaeda in Iraq operatives to lash out and stage spectacular attacks to reassert themselves." His comments follow a weekend of violence in Iraq in which nearly 250 people were killed, including 150 in a huge truck bombing in the northern town of Tuz Khurmato. Iraqi officials have blamed the Sunni Islamist militant group for that attack. U.S. officials blame al Qaeda for most of the major car bombings in Iraq, saying the group is trying to spark all-out civil war between majority Shi'tes and minority Sunni Arabs. Bergner said it was the view of U.S. forces, the Iraqi government and the intelligence community that al Qaeda in Iraq was the main near-term threat to the country.
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Those comments echoed statements from U.S. military commander General David Petraeus, who has called al Qaeda "public enemy number one" in Iraq. Bergner said soldiers last month discovered what he called a "major media production centre" run by al Qaeda in Iraq near the city of Samarra, north of Baghdad. He said the centre had a functioning film studio and 12 computers which were used to make "propaganda" CDs, DVDs and posters. Bergner said this showed al Qaeda's intent to use the media as a weapon. Tens of thousands of U.S. troops are engaged in a series of offensives in Iraq that aim to deny al Qaeda the opportunity to launch big car bomb attacks, especially in Baghdad. U.S. President George W. Bush has sent 28,000 additional troops to Iraq, bringing total military personnel there to 157,000.
But while the last of those reinforcements only arrived in June, pressure is mounting on Bush from opposition Democrats and also senior members in his Republican Party for a change in strategy.
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