Posted on 08/23/2007 2:01:06 PM PDT by james500
Suspected Al Qaeda fighters stormed two villages near Baqouba on Thursday, bombed the house of a local Sunni sheik and kidnapped a group of mostly women. Residents were finally able to drive off the attackers and end the deadly rampage.
Seventeen villagers, including seven women, were killed in the assaults roughly 35 miles northeast of Baghdad. Ten Al Qaeda gunmen also died.
The twin attacks near the Diyala provincial capital -- the focus of recent major U.S.-Iraqi military operations against alleged Al Qaeda fighters and Shiite militiamen -- hit a Shiite village and a Sunni village with the same ferocity but apparently different motives.
Al Qaeda in Iraq has been forced to fight a rearguard action against many of its former allies in the Sunni community who have risen up against the terrorist organization because of its brutality and attempts to impose the group's austere version of Islam. Shiite communities remain Al Qaeda targets out of sectarian animosity.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
YES! Finally some good news today!
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