Word: qaeda
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Over the next four years, the breach widened. Zapatero's first move after taking office was to pull Spain's troops out of Iraq - a measure that was one of the major planks of his campaign platform, but which his opponents interpreted as capitulation to al-Qaeda's demands. In an effort to both clear its own name and, no doubt, undermine support for the Socialists, the PP continued to insist that ETA had a hand in the attacks, and that the government was covering it up. (See pictures of al-Qaeda...
...deal that would make a difference. The model for Obama's suggestion, of course, is Iraq, where the U.S. managed to pacify Anbar province by recruiting most of the local Sunni sheiks, who had previously been part of the insurgency, to wage a common fight against al-Qaeda. But Obama admitted that the Iraq strategy is hardly an easy fit. "The situation in Afghanistan is, if anything, more complex [than Iraq]," he said. "You have a less governed region, a history of fierce independence among tribes ... [which] sometimes operate at cross-purposes. And so figuring all that out is going...
...Indeed, far more of a challenge than Obama even acknowledged. Al-Qaeda in Iraq was led by foreign jihadists, making it easier for the U.S. to turn locals against the organization, particularly when they chafed under al-Qaeda's imposition of strict Islamic law. But in Afghanistan - particularly in the south, where the insurgency is strongest - the militants are natives. In Iraq, an established and functioning government could offer sheiks who switched sides a credible alternative center of power, whereas in Afghanistan, the government is generally perceived to be corrupt, weak and unable to provide security. In Iraq, moreover...
Iraq?s insurgency includes several disparate groups: religious zealots like the Takfiris (followers of an extremist form of Sunni Islam) and al-Qaeda, on the one hand, and remnants of Saddam?s former secular Baathist regime on the other. The two sides were united by their common enemies: U.S. troops and the Iraqis who worked with the ?occupiers,? like al-Maliki, but little else. (See a who's who of combatants in Iraq...
Major General David Perkins, a spokesman for U.S. forces in Iraq, told a press conference in Baghdad on Sunday that al-Qaeda was increasingly desperate to maintain relevance in Iraq. The source close to the insurgency told TIME that al-Qaeda was regrouping and recalibrating its focus. "The politics of the attacks have changed," the source said. "They don't want to attack the Americans because they know they are leaving. They are targeting the Awakening councils and the tribes because they are working with the government," he said, referring to the mainly Sunni councils that turned against the insurgency...