Militant Group Is Out of Baghdad, U.S. Says
American forces have routed Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, the Iraqi militant network, from every neighborhood of Baghdad, a top American general said today, allowing American troops involved in the “surge” to depart as planned.
He and other military commanders have maintained for months that the conditions for national reconciliation have been met.
They argue that Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, the homegrown Sunni extremist group that American intelligence agencies say is foreign-led, has been weakened. They cite in particular the rise of the American-supported citizen volunteers — 67,000 nationwide, according to military figures.
And though Sunni extremist groups could revive and “reinfest very quickly,” General Fil said, Iraq’s leaders should now have the peace they need to build a trusted, cross-sectarian government. But progress toward that, he said, has been “disappointing.”.....snip~
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/08/w...7895a8fea&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&_r=0
Al-Qaeda making comeback in Iraq, officials say.....
Al-Qaeda is rebuilding in Iraq and has set up training camps for insurgents in the nation's western deserts as the extremist group seizes on regional instability and government security failures to regain strength, officials say.
During the war and its aftermath, U.S. forces, joined by allied Sunni groups and later by Iraqi counterterror forces, managed to beat back al-Qaeda's Iraqi branch.
The new growth of al-Qaeda in Iraq, also known as the Islamic State of Iraq, is not entirely unexpected. Last November, the top U.S. military official in Iraq, Army Gen. Lloyd Austin, predicted "turbulence" ahead for Iraq's security forces. But he doubted Iraq would return to the days of widespread fighting between Shiite militias and Sunni insurgents, including al-Qaeda, that brought the Islamic country to the brink of civil war.
Al-Qaeda making comeback in Iraq, officials say
6:26 p.m. EDT October 9, 2012
Note the terms routed, beat back.....New Growth.