Free Republic

Federal agents in Sacramento arrested a suspected ISIS member Wednesday on charges that he killed an Iraqi police officer in 2014 in the Rawah District of Al-Anbar province as fighters were taking over the town.

WASHINGTON, Sep. 4, 2006 – Iraqi police killed one of the most wanted insurgent leaders in the Euphrates River Valley during a Sept. 2 counterinsurgency operation in the city of Rawah, U.S. officials reported. Sadam Shihab Ahmad had played a key role organizing local anti-coalition operations, officials said. He also was suspected of involvement in the beheading of a Rawah policeman earlier this year. When Ahmad, along with an accomplice, saw Iraqi police approaching their position in Rawah, the two suspects attempted to flee in a vehicle, but the police blocked their escape route. A policeman ordered Ahmad and his...

The recent spike in U.S. casualties in Iraq, although tragic, needs to be placed in strategic context. As usual, the press has not done so, focusing on the loss of life without any apparent effort to understand what the fighting that led to these casualties means. But the answer is there for anyone who wishes to probe beneath the surface. In fact, the intense fighting indicates that Coalition forces have stepped up their campaign in Al Anbar province to destroy the insurgency by depriving it of its base in the Sunni Triangle and its "rat lines" — the infiltration routes...