Or: Another one bites the dust.
From the 'couldn't happen to a nicer guy' files. Al Qaida #2 killed.
BAGHDAD, Iraq - U.S. and Iraqi authorities said Tuesday their forces had killed the No. 2 official in the al-Qaida in Iraq organization in a weekend raid in Baghdad, claiming to have struck a "painful blow" to the country's most feared insurgent group.
Now, I know this is the AP, so it's only 'claiming' right now, (unless, of course, it's AL Q doing the 'claiming, in which case 'we' take it as gospel) and I also know I probably shouldn't applaud the fact that a human being has lost his life, but you'll have to do a lot of work to convince me that the world isn't a better place for this.
Update: It seems the news is even better than a first glance showed. (that'll teach me to post before reading the whole article (suuuuure it will))
Abu Azzam's death was followed by two other successes against al-Qaida in Iraq's leadership, officials said — the group's leader in the northern city of Mosul surrendered to the Iraqi military, and its leader in the town of Karabila in the sensitive region near the Syrian border was killed.
You see, it's not just that progress is being made, significant to this bit is just who is making the progress. Despite the best efforts of the MSM to show otherwise, it would seem that Coalition training efforts are having a positive effect, and that Iraqi forces are actually taking on some of the burden themselves. It's a good day!
