Rumors about this group have been circulating for some time. Just three days ago, the military was close enough to nailing Zarqawi that they took out his top aide. Missed him by that much (Maxwell Smart voice)!! NY Post:

WASHINGTON — The U.S. military has created a special commando task force to destroy the vicious terror network controlled by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi — and twice has come very close to killing him, Pentagon officials said yesterday.

Others Blogging: Paul at Wizbang, Gordito the Cranky Neocon

Military officials confirmed a report on Fox News Channel that a special unit of CIA operatives and Special Forces Commandos known as Task Force 626 has been assigned to hunting down and attacking Zarqawi's Tawhid and Jihad group.

The new force is smaller than Task Force 121, the team that hunted down Saddam Hussein and is now in Afghanistan looking for Osama bin Laden.

The secret Zarqawi task force has operatives and paid informants penetrating the ultra-violent town of Fallujah and a Sunni-dominated Baghdad neighborhood known as "Little Fallujah."

Sources told The Post that twice, once last week in the village of Zoba near Fallujah, and once last summer in Fallujah, the U.S. narrowly missed killing the elusive Zarqawi.

Tawhid and Jihad's spiritual leader, Sheik Abu Anas al-Sami, was killed in a U.S. airstrike west of Baghdad last weekend.

Posted by: Rusty at 02:50 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
Post contains 236 words, total size 2 kb.