US and Iraqi forces have killed or captured at least 7,000 Al-Qaeda fighters in the past two years, with 30 "senior leaders' taken out of action since July. The news comes hard on the heels of a leaked US Marine report that states US forces cannot defeat the Al-Qaeda-led insurgency in the vast western desert province of Al-Anbar. "Since October 2004, we have now killed or captured over 7,000 Al-Qaeda terrorists," coalition spokesman Major General William Caldwell told journalists on Tuesday. "Coalition and Iraqi security forces have made significant progress in dismantling the terrorist network," he said, adding that since July some 30 "senior level" Al-Qaeda have also been killed or captured. Also, in the past two weeks, a series of raids throughout central and northern Iraq netted 11 leaders of the Al-Qaeda-allied Ansar al-Sunna insurgent group, he said.
Caldwell disputed the leaked assessment of the situation in Anbar, which was reported by the Washington Post. "If anything, there has been a turn of events in the past few months towards the positive," he said.
Citing a senior US intelligence official, the Post said "the fundamental questions of lack of control, growth of the insurgency and criminality" described in the August report remain true in November. "The social and political situation has deteriorated to a point" that US and Iraqi troops "are no longer capable of militarily defeating the insurgency in Al-Anbar", wrote the paper. "I was just down in Fallujah last week and that's not what we saw at all," said Caldwell, referring to a former insurgent stronghold in the province. "It does not sound correct to me at all."
The general maintained that political insitutions were still functioning in cities of Al-Anbar and they remained under government control.