On Friday, 06/17/2006, two American soldiers were captured and one killed during an attack on a checkpoint in Yusufiyah, Iraq. (Pte. 1st Class Kristian Menchaca, 23, of Houston, TX and Pte. 1st Class Thomas Tucker, 25, of Madras, OR) The group who claimed responsibility for the abductions -Mujahedeen Shura Council, an umbrella group of Al Qaeda related insurgent groups – is the same one that claimed responsibility for the kidnapping of four Russian diplomats and killing one in Baghdad’s Mansour district, 06/03/2006. (The four missing are Fyodor Zaytsev, Rinat Aglyulin, Anatoly Smirnov and Oleg Fedosseyev; Vitaly Titov died) They hadn't made any demands, but as of today, they’ve given Moscow 48 hours to pull out of Chechnya and free Chechen prisoners.
Iraqi government Sunnis poised to take on insurgents
Coordinated raids in the days after Zarqawi’s death are looking more and more to have been a politicized effort – insurgents and their protectors who were close, but not aligned, with the Sunnis in the Iraqi government were ratted out and crushed, forcing a polarization of the insurgent and insurgent supporter community. The blowback will cause the insurgents to do more and dramatic attempts to assert relevance, such as these high profile abductions and further destruction. As long as the Sunni element in the Iraqi government keeps the pressure on, the insurgency could very well be on its last gasps.
Also, today, 500 detainees were released from U.S.-run detention centres in Iraq, the Justice Ministry said, part of Prime Minister al-Maliki’s plan to release 2,500 prisoners to promote national reconciliation. This will probably have a positive effect of widening the gap, mainstreaming Sunnis toward the government's cause and isolating the insurgency. Our American military probably doesn't think releasing prisoners's a good idea, especially since our left/press will probably find some way to make it into the cause celeb - return our troops!
I’ve some pictures of Yusufiyah and the Mansour district as well as some more info about the Mujahedeen Shura Council, which I’ll put up later.