Northern Exposure

al Qaeda’s northern network in the Mosul region continues to take a pounding. Over the weekend, five terrorists, including two “senior-level leaders responsible for planning and funding terrorism” were captured based on tips from the citizens of Tal Afar. Two others were killed in a firefight in Mosul.

Today, the Coalition announced the two killed in Mosul included al Qaeda cell leader Nashwan Mijhim Muslet (aka Abu Tayir or Abu Zaid) and his assistant. Muslet was a particularly charming terrorist, as was his assistant:

His cell was known as the primary beheading cell for Abu Talha, the [former] al Qaeda in Iraq Emir of Mosul…The beheadings were filmed to intimidate the local population of Mosul as well as Iraqi citizens throughout Iraq. Intelligence reports indicate that [Muslet] personally helped Zubayr [the former Emir of Mosul after Talha’s demise] behead three Mosul citizens during one of the videotaped gatherings.

As a senior operational cell leader, Nashwan was chiefly responsible for attacking Iraqi Security and Coalition forces. These attacks consisted of engaging convoys with small arms fire, rocket propelled grenades, IEDs and VBIEDs.

His cell was also responsible for intimidating Mosul citizens through criminal activities. Nashwan’s cell conducted roadblocks, stopping local citizens to extort money from them or to kidnap family members of businessmen or prominent families to ransom them for money.

Nahi Achmed Obeid Sultan (aka Abu Hassan), assistant to Nashwan, was killed during the raid. He was responsible for providing personal security for Nashwan and running the day-to-day operations of the terrorist cell.

The death of Muslet and Sultan highlights the ongoing dismantlement of Abu Talha’s network in northern Iraq. The takedown began in December of 2004 with the arrest of Talha’s deputy, Abu Marwan, which yielded valuable intelligence on the network. The senior members of the network were then methodically hunted down one by one over the course of the year, degrading the network by about 80%, according to Col. Robert Brown. The chart does not even do the assault on Talha’s network any justice, as the information was gathered from open source intelligence, and no doubt there are gaps.

Bill Roggio is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the Editor of FDD's Long War Journal.

12 Comments

  • TallDave says:

    Those civilian Iraqi cell phones are our deadliest weapon.

  • Nick Rizzuto says:

    Great news. Now if we can only get our hands (or bullets) on Zarqawi…

  • Continuing Analysis

    Bill Roggio continues to provide in depth analyses of recent coalition operations in Iraq. Northern Exposure outlines Task Force Freedom’s advances against al Quaeda in Mosul….

  • blert says:

    This goes to show that a captured terroist is worth so much more than a dead one.
    They talk plenty

  • Soldier's Dad says:

    Another piece of Diyala province on its way to ISF control.
    http://www.mnf-iraq.com/Releases/Oct/051026f.htm

  • Oded says:

    But the real war on terror should be in Afghanistan, Bin Laden was never captured, we were misled by the neocons in this misadventure which is clearly a detour intended to fill the pockets of Cheneys cronies. 2000 dead soldiers and no WMD! etc., etc.
    OK I’m no liberal, but read the Times editorial page and Bob Herberts vacuous assessment of this dreadful milestone. Then hold his mind numbing rant in relief to VDH’s scholarly take (with the appropriate historical context) in an editorial on the same page.

  • Justin Capone says:

    But the real war on terror should be in Afghanistan, Bin Laden was never captured, we were misled by the neocons in this misadventure which is clearly a detour intended to fill the pockets of Cheneys cronies.
    ——————————————
    What do you think a democratic Iraq with a strong army is going to do to al-Qaeda across the Middle East? They are going to hunt them down and kill them. After Zarqawi is defeated in Iraq. The Iraqi government is going to set its sites on al-Qaeda in Syria led by Abu Musab al-Suri and either force the Syrians to kill them or the Iraqis will move in and kill them. After that point the Iraqi government will spend years building up its intel services and hunting down al-Qaeda around the Middle East.
    Iraq sees al-Qaeda as their enemy today far more then Americans do.
    The fact that people can’t see the big picture is their own fault.

  • Bruce Ferry says:

    “But the real war on terror should be in Afghanistan, Bin Laden was never captured, we were misled by the neocons in this misadventure which is clearly a detour intended to fill the pockets of Cheneys cronies.”
    Quit looking at the WMD issue. It is NEVER just one thing. We are in a fight that will last generation after generation because of islamic ideologies. This is really a fight for freedom and against oppression. If the fundamentalist have their way, not only womens’ rights will be in jeopardy but all of our rights will be in jeopardy. If you don’t get that then you are not paying attention. Eventually, you will somehow be adversley affected by islam.
    Time for you to quit living in a dream world and to wake up and smell the coffee.

  • mike E says:

    But the real war on terror should be in Afghanistan, Bin Laden was never captured, we were misled by the neocons in this misadventure which is clearly a detour intended to fill the pockets of Cheneys cronies. 2000 dead soldiers and no WMD! etc., etc.
    You nead to read the Duelfer report, Saddam had WMD programmes including intellectual capital and dual use facilities. I suppose we could have taken the clinton approach, ie. just ignore the evidence of a growing threat and hope everything will turn out OK. However we all know how well that approach worked on 9/11. In addition instead of a democratic nation in Iraq where 63% of elegible voters just approved the constitution by a yes vote of 78% we would still have a brutal thugocracy intent on getting WMD.

  • mike E says:

    But the real war on terror should be in Afghanistan, Bin Laden was never captured, we were misled by the neocons in this misadventure which is clearly a detour intended to fill the pockets of Cheneys cronies. 2000 dead soldiers and no WMD! etc., etc.
    You nead to read the Duelfer report, Saddam had WMD programmes including intellectual capital and dual use facilities. I suppose we could have taken the clinton approach, ie. just ignore the evidence of a growing threat and hope everything will turn out OK. However we all know how well that approach worked on 9/11. In addition instead of a democratic nation in Iraq where 63% of elegible voters just approved the constitution by a yes vote of 78% we would still have a brutal thugocracy intent on getting WMD.

  • ikez78 says:

    Nice posts guys. Has anyone else ever ventured onto those Washington Post message boards?

  • Oded says:

    I hope yall know I was just kidding. Boy nothing like a reference to Bob Herbert and the NY Times to get you all riled up! Im with ya Bruce, and a regular here.

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