Al Qaida Said To Be Defeated In Iraq

WASHINGTON [MENL] -- A leading U.S. military analyst has asserted that Al
Qaida was defeated in Iraq.
U.S. Army Gen. [Ret.] Jack Keane said Al Qaida has sustained a major
blow with its defeat in Iraq. Keane, a former acting and vice chief of staff
of the army until 2003, said Al Qaida has been crushed in most areas of the
Arab country.
"The Al Qaida has been operationally defeated in Iraq," Keane said. "I
believe that at the end of 2007, and, certainly, events that have taken
place in 2008 have contributed even more significantly to that. This is a
major strategic defeat for the Al Qaida because they declared this as their
central front."
In an address to the Washington-based American Enterprise Institute on
July 24, Keane said Al Qaida underwent a sharp decline in wake of the Iraqi
Sunni rejection of the Islamic insurgency group. The general cited the
establishment of a U.S.-financed Sunni-dominated auxiliary police force
designed to track Al Qaida movements and activities.
"Certainly, with U.S. presence in Iraq, they [Al Qaida] felt that this
was a
vulnerability that they could exploit for their own purposes," Keane said.