Pat Dollard | Young Americans

As reported in my morning story, Al Qaeda is on a ruthless campaign of destruction in Baghdad, primarily directed at the attention of the international media. Extremely furious that they have been ejected out of the Al Anbar province, they are engaged in a nasty series of counterattacks designed to make the Baghdad surge appear unsuccesful.

According to two international media sources, one in the United Arab Emirates, Al Qaeda made an internet announcement that it had captured 20 Iraqi soldiers and policemen today, pictured above.

They demanded the “turning over of members of the interior ministry who took part in raping our sister, Sabrin al-Jarabi…and those who killed and displaced our people in Tal Afar, and those who participated in raping our sisters there.” The alleged rape of the woman known by the pseudonym of Janabi, who appeared in footage broadcast on Arab networks saying she had been raped by interior ministry officers, triggered a bitter battle at the highest levels in Iraq. Sunni leaders largely believed her claims, but Shia Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki dismissed them, alleging the rape was invented by Sunni politicians to tarnish the police at the launch of a Baghdad security crackdown.

They also demanded the release of “Muslim Sunni sisters who are in the prisons of the interior (ministry).”