News Bulletin: American Soldiers Die In Attacks

At least they waited until the second half of the A1 headline--Iraq Security Plan Underway; Crash of Marine Copter Kills 7 by Ernesto Londono and Joshua Partlow:

BAGHDAD, Feb. 7 -- On the day the U.S. military announced that American and Iraqi forces had begun implementing their long-awaited security plan, a U.S. Marine transport helicopter crashed northwest of Baghdad, the fifth deadly loss of an American helicopter in Iraq in less than three weeks.

Military officials said all seven crew members and passengers were killed in the crash of the CH-46 Sea Knight on Wednesday in Anbar province. The cause remains under investigation, but officials said the aircraft was having mechanical problems before it went down. The four other helicopters in recent crashes were shot down, the military acknowledged this week...

There is a remarkable amount of information about helicopter losses in this story. About the following, as cited at The Jawa Report, not so much:

Coalition forces in Iraq have delivered a series of stunning blows to al Qaeda in Iraq in the last 48 hours.

A key aide to Abu Ayyub al-Masri, the man who replaced Abu Musab al Zarqawi as the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, has been captured south of Baghdad. As A.J. Strata notes, the trail to the al Qaeda leader is fresh: the captured aide admitted to meeting with al Masri yesterday.

Since Taji is north of Baghdad, these two al Qaeda IED cell leaders captured by the U.S. in West Taji are not the same as those above.  That's four al Qaeda leaders captured.

But four is such a lonely number.  A facilitator of foreign fighters was captured by the Iarqi Army on the Syrian border.  And foreign fighters tend to mean al Qaeda. 

Not to be outdone by the IA, the U.S. struck two houses where foreign fighters had gathered---13 jihadis dead.  An "individual" associated with foreign fighter facilitation was in the targeted area.

But wait, that's not all. Coalition Forces conducted an air strike Wednesday targeting an al-Qaida in Iraq-related vehicle-borne improvised explosives devices network near Arab Jabour. Intelligence reports indicated that this network is responsible for a large and devastating number of VBIED attacks in the Baghdad area. They are also responsible for IED and sniper attacks conducted against the Iraqi people and Iraqi and Coalition Forces. Building destroyed, everyone inside presumably dead.

And another terrorist was captured in Taji. In addition to leading a bombing cell, he is also believed to be involved in taking Iraqis hostage and murdering them. Which would mean that he is either al Qaeda or one of the related organizations under the umbrella of the "Islamic State of Iraq".

So, we have 6 al Qaeda leaders captured, and possibly dozens more killed.  All in the last 48 hours....

No nifty graphic of that. Imagine.