So much for loyalty among terrorists. CNN now reports that the Coalition mission that killed Abu Musab al-Zarqawi came as a result of betrayal within the ranks of his own organization. The Pentagon also confirmed that US and Iraqi forces raided a total of 17 sites based on the intelligence gathered for weeks before today:

Betrayal inside his al Qaeda in Iraq terror group led to success in a painstaking U.S.-led operation to kill Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the U.S. military said on Thursday.

The most wanted man in Iraq died in a U.S. airstrike Wednesday evening when two 500-pound bombs slammed into a safe house near Baquba, according to U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Bill Caldwell.

"Last night was the first time that we have had definitive, unquestionable information as to exactly where [al-Zarqawi] was located, knowing that we could strike that target without causing collateral damage to other Iraqi civilians and personnel in the area," Caldwell said.

In addition, Iraqi security and coalition forces conducted 17 simultaneous raids in and around Baghdad at the time of the attack, Caldwell said.

"A tremendous amount of information and intelligence was collected" from the raids, he said, "and is presently being exploited and utilized for further use. I mean, it was a treasure trove; no question."

That explains one of the questions asked by those on the Left, skeptical as to why the Coalition has not acted on previous intelligence to kill Zarqawi. Given his pledge to blow himself up if captured and his propensity to hide among civilians, the Coalition apparently didn't want to risk unnecessary collateral damage when operating on uncertain intelligence. That also explains why they killed rather than capture him. He likely would not have provided much information to interrogators under any circumstances, and the US felt that capturing Zarqawi would not be worth losing men to a suicide blast.

If the US felt it would have achieved more cachet by capturing Zarqawi alive, the revelation that Zarqawi went to his demise because his own terrorists betrayed him will stagger al-Qaeda and its wannabes around the world. After spending the last several years arguing that they represent the ummah's greatest defense against the infidel, it seems that some of their number have little compunction about working with Westerners to get rid of a troublesome Muslim in their midst. Especially embarrassing will be the fact that someone in the network ratted out Sheik Abdel Rahman, supposedly a holy man acting as Zarqawi's spiritual advisor.

For that reason, the martyrdom of Zarqawi will hardly resonate among the young radicals that al-Qaeda needs for recruitment. They will rightly wonder how supposedly faithful Muslims could turn on each other and still maintain adherence to jihad and Islam. That may provide the first glimmer for some that Islamofascism has much more to do with tyranny than religion, at least in practice.

As for the coordinated raids, that shows how long it takes to do an intel-Special Ops mission right. Hitting Zarqawi alone would have dispersed other targets immediately, allowing other important targets to escape for more mischief and terror. While Zarqawi's strength came from his decentralized ability to cause casualties randomly, our strength comes from our ability and resources to plan and execute complex and overpowering missions to defeat asymmetrical threats. Today, we see that our strengths will inevitably provide victory over those of the terrorists. They are outclassed, and the only way they can win is if we give up.

Addendum: Hot Air notes the similarity to the three Godfather films, an analogy that occurred to me earlier as well. What occurs to Rep. Pete Stark, D-CA, is that killing our enemies only has value in a political sense:

Some Democrats, breaking ranks from their leadership, today said the death of terrorist leader Abu Musab Zarqawi in Iraq was a stunt to divert attention from an unpopular and hopeless war.

“This is just to cover Bush’s [rear] so he doesn’t have to answer” for Iraqi civilians being killed by the U.S. military and his own sagging poll numbers, said Rep. Pete Stark, California Democrat. “Iraq is still a mess — get out.”

This gives Americans a clear idea of how Democrats view war strategy, and why they can't be trusted with it.

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» With Friends Like These, Who Needs Enemas? from Vince Aut Morire
CNN reports that Zarqawi was turned in by his own: BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) — Betrayal inside his al Qaeda in Iraq terror group led to success in a painstaking U.S.-led operation to kill Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the U.S. military said on Thursday. The ar... [Read More]

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