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Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was once held by the US in Camp Bucca Iraq. But the Obama administration shut down the Bucca prison camp and released its prisoners, including al-Baghdadi in 2009. The Telegraph reported: The FBI “most wanted” mugshot shows a tough, swarthy figure, his hair in a jailbird crew-cut. The $10 million price on his head, meanwhile, suggests that whoever released him from US custody four years ago may now be regretting it… …Well-organised and utterly ruthless, the ex-preacher is the driving force behind al-Qaeda’s resurgence throughout Syria and Iraq, putting it at the forefront of the war to...

The FBI “most wanted” mugshot shows a tough, swarthy figure, his hair in a jailbird crew-cut. The $10 million price on his head, meanwhile, suggests that whoever released him from US custody four years ago may now be regretting it. Taken during his years as a detainee at the US-run Camp Bucca in southern Iraq, this is the only known photograph of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the new leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq and Syria. But while he may lack the photogenic qualities of his hero, Osama bin Laden, he is fast becoming the new poster-boy for the global jihadist movement....

In June, we learned that the head of ISIS, Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, had been in US custody but was released in 2009 when President Obama closed down Camp Bucca in preparation for the US withdrawal of troops (yes, the withdrawal he repeatedly denies having anything to do with) from Iraq. ... Abu Duaa was connected to the intimidation, torture and murder of local civilians in Qaim,’ according to a 2005 U.S. intelligence report. He would kidnap individuals or entire families, accuse them, pronounce sentence and then publicly execute them ... ISIS’ acts of unmatched evil include burying women and...

The Telegraph reported: The FBI “most wanted” mugshot shows a tough, swarthy figure, his hair in a jailbird crew-cut. The $10 million price on his head, meanwhile, suggests that whoever released him from US custody four years ago may now be regretting it… …Well-organised and utterly ruthless, the ex-preacher is the driving force behind al-Qaeda’s resurgence throughout Syria and Iraq, putting it at the forefront of the war to topple President Bashar al-Assad and starting a fresh campaign of mayhem against the Western-backed government in Baghdad. On Tuesday, his forces achieved their biggest coup in Iraq to date, seizing control...

DENVER (AP) - A National Guardsman testifying at a hearing for U.S. soldiers accused of killing an Iraq general said he saw classified U.S. personnel beat prisoners with a sledgehammer handle and mock the general's death, according to a transcript. The transcript, obtained by The Denver Post, includes an exchange during the hearing that suggests the CIA was involved. Sgt. 1st Class Gerold Pratt of the Utah National Guard said he saw unidentified U.S. personnel use the 15-inch wooden handle to hit prisoners. "They'd ask you a question, and if they didn't like it, they'd hit you," he said, according...

CAMP AL QAIM, Iraq, June 13, 2006 – A Marine Corps police transition team is working here to equip and train Iraqi police. While there are many obstacles to surmount, there are signs of progress, U.S. officials here said. When Marine Maj. Robert Marshall, the officer in charge of the Police Transition Team here, arrived in April, there were two half-built police stations and three or four officers. Now there are hundreds of police on the rolls and officers to lead them. The coalition team has 17 members split between U.S. military active-duty and reserve personnel and civilian police officers...

CAMP AL QAIM, Iraq, June 12, 2006 – Two empty houses in a neighborhood for engineers at a local power plant are proving to be a perfect training ground for Iraqi soldiers. Iraqi soldiers prepare to storm into a room during a house-clearing exercise at Camp Al Qaim, Iraq, June 6. Photo by Jim Garamone  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. During a recent exercise, U.S. Special Forces soldiers watched as Iraqi soldiers patrolled a street carrying brightly painted AK-47 assault rifles. The Iraqis eyed the rooftops and held their garishly painted weapons correctly -- with two hands and...

CAMP AL QA'IM, Iraq (March 24, 2006) -- Marines from 1st Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment never thought they’d see the Al Qa’im region of Iraq again when they departed their military camp here in March last year. One year later, the Twentynine Palms, Calif.-based unit has returned to this remote forward operating base here, located just east of the Syrian border in western Al Anbar Province, to continue to keep insurgents at bay and provide stability in the region. But this time, they’ve got a new mission — assisting an Iraqi Army unit to eventually take control of the area....

Great strides have been made to turn the native elements of the Iraqi insurgency against the al-Qaeda wing of the insurgency. Insurgent groups in Anbar province and the city of Samarra have declared war against al-Qaeda. But news the Karabilah tribe is summarly rounding up al-Qaeda without a fight should be viewed with skeptitism. Omar at Iraq The Model translates and reprints a spectacular claim by Arabic newspaper Dar al-Hayat which purports a massive operation to purge the al-Qaim region by local tribal groups is currently underway. According to Sheikh Usama Jad’aan, the leader of Karabila tribes in Qaim, “the...

Depkafile is reporting that internal Syrian communications channels report Syrian “Desert Guards” border units fought US Marines who crossed into Syria at a point west of al Qaim.

Day one of Operation Steel Curtain, which is aimed at dislodging al Qaeda from the border town of Husaybah and estabishing a permanent presence of Iraqi troops, has ended. CNN's Arwa Damon is embedded with the Marines fighting in Husaybah., and reports the town was largely abandoned due to fighting between the pro-government Albu Mahla tribe and the pro-al Qaeda Karabilah tribe over the summer. The street fighting has been reported to have been intense in the center and southwest corner of the city. Over thirty roadside bombs and booby trapped homes have been uncovered, along with two car bombs....

WASHINGTON, Oct. 21, 2005 – Coalition forces detained five terrorists and seized a large weapons cache today when they raided a suspected al Qaeda safe house northwest of Qaim, Iraq, military officials reported. The cache consisted of weapons, ammunition, mortars and bomb-making materials, officials said. Intelligence sources and tips from local citizens led coalition forces to the location. Coalition aircraft, using precision guided munitions, destroyed the safe house and weapons cache after coalition forces left the scene. Elsewhere in Iraq, Iraqi police and coalition forces stopped short a coordinated attack on the Khalis Iraqi police station Oct. 20, in Diyala....

US forces backed by fighter aircraft and helicopter gun ships overnight pushed an offensive along the Syrian border as Al-Qaeda in Iraq threatened to kill two marines it claimed to have kidnapped while taking part in the sweep. A force of 1000 US soldiers launched Operation 'Iron Fist' in and around the village of Sadah in the restive Euphrates Valley on Saturday, the latest offensive aimed at rooting out Al-Qaeda-linked insurgents in the border region. "Coalition Forces, including helicopters from 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing, engaged and killed eight armed terrorists in fighting early in the day October 1," said a...

QAIM, Iraq - U.S. troops battled insurgents holed up in houses and driving explosives-laden vehicles in a second town near the Syrian border Sunday, killing 28 in an expansion of their two-day-old offensive chasing al-Qaida fighters along the Euphrates River valley, the military said. Al-Qaida in Iraq claimed to have taken two Marines captive during the fighting and threatened to kill them within 24 hours unless all female Sunni detainees are released from U.S. and Iraqi prisons in the country. The U.S. military said the claim appeared false. "There are no indications that the al-Qaida claims ... are true," Multinational...

Operation Iron Fist begins CAMP BLUE DIAMOND, AR RAMADI, Iraq – A force of approximately 1,000 Marines, Soldiers and Sailors from Regimental Combat Team-2 launched an operation against a known terrorist sanctuary in the western al Anbar province town of Sadah, in the al Qaim region approximately 12 km. from the Syrian border. Operation Kabda Bil Hadid, or Iron Fist in English, began in the early morning hours in order to root out al Qaeda in Iraq terrorists operating in the area and to disrupt terrorist support systems in and around the city. For the past several months, terrorists within...

QAIM, Iraq (AP) -- About 1,000 U.S. troops, backed by attack helicopters, swarmed into a tiny Iraqi village near the Syrian border Saturday in an offensive aimed at rooting out fighters from al-Qaida in Iraq, the country's most feared militant group, the military said. The assault, the latest in a series of major operations this year by U.S. forces in the heartland of the Sunni-led insurgency, targeted the village of Sadah, which the military said was a base for al-Qaida militants and foreign fighters entering from Syria.

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - U.S. warplanes bombed a house in an al-Qaida stronghold near the Syrian border Wednesday and a key terrorist operative was believed killed, the U.S. military said. It was the second day of airstrikes aimed at what American commanders say is an increasing al-Qaida presence in the area near the border city of Qaim. A U.S. military statement said Wednesday's attack was thought to have killed Abu Ali, a senior al-Qaida agent in charge of helping foreign fighters enter the country from Syria. He was believed in a house targeted in a Euphrates River village, the statement...

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Abu Musab Zarqawi's foreign-led al-Qaida in Iraq took open control Monday of a key western town at the Syrian border, deploying its guerrilla fighters in the streets and flying Zarqawi's black banner from rooftops, said tribal leaders and other residents in the city and surrounding villages. A sign newly posted at the entrance of Qaim declared, "Welcome to the Islamic Kingdom of Qaim." A statement posted in mosques described Qaim as an "Islamic kingdom liberated from the occupation." Zarqawi's fighters were killing officials and civilians seen as government-allied or anti-Islamic, witnesses, residents and others said. On Sunday,...

BAGHDAD, Sept. 5 -- Fighters loyal to militant leader Abu Musab Zarqawi asserted control over the key Iraqi border town of Qaim on Monday, killing U.S. collaborators and enforcing strict Islamic law, according to tribal members, officials, residents and others in the town and nearby villages. Residents said the foreign-led fighters controlled by Zarqawi, a Jordanian, apparently had been exerting authority in the town, within two miles of the Syrian border, since at least the start of the weekend. A sign posted at an entrance to the town declared, "Welcome to the Islamic Republic of Qaim." The report from Qaim,...

Abu Musab Zarqawi's foreign-led Al Qaeda in Iraq took open control of a key western town at the Syrian border, deploying its guerrilla fighters in the streets and flying Zarqawi's black banner from rooftops, witnesses, residents and others in the city and surrounding villages said. A sign newly posted at the entrance of Qaim declared, "Welcome to the Islamic Kingdom of Qaim." A statement posted in mosques described Qaim as an "Islamic kingdom liberated from the occupation." Zarqawi's fighters were killing officials and civilians seen as government-allied or anti-Islamic, witnesses, residents and others said. On Sunday, the bullet-riddled body of...