Comical Allawi, the man without a military, is threatening “military action” against the people of Fallujah:
13 October 2004 — Interim Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi is threatening military action against the main insurgent stronghold of Al-Fallujah if residents don’t hand over Jordanian-born militant Abu Mus’ab al-Zarqawi and his comrades.
“If al-Zarqawi and his group are not handed over to us, we are ready for major operations in Fallujah,” Allawi said. “We are determined to safeguard the Iraqi people, because there are forces that want to inflict harm on the Iraqi people. I hope they [people in Al-Fallujah] will respond. If they don’t, we will have to use force.”
[…]
Meanwhile, a group led by al-Zarqawi posted a video on the Internet that showed two Iraqi intelligence officers beheaded.
I guess upping the bounty for Zarqawi from ten million to twenty five million hasn’t worked any better than it has for capturing Osama bin Laden. Of course, massive force didn’t work against bin Laden either. Massive force is usually counterproductive in a guerrilla conflict anyway, since inevitably large numbers of civilians get killed, which turns more of the population into insurgents or rebel-sympathizers, which is why guerillas try to provoke the massive use of force – sort of like what Zarqawi is doing to Allawi and the US military.
Anyway, how do they know he’s in Fallujah? More of that whiz-bang “intelligence?”
The United States tried twice to rescue the two Americans and one British citizen held hostage in Iraq, according to a U.S. official with direct knowledge of the attempts.
The attempts involved deploying U.S. military as well as other government personnel on two occasions. Intelligence led the rescue teams to two locations in Baghdad, the official said.
Both times, the source said, the missions came up with “dry holes.”