AUMENTAN LAS SOSPECHAS: al parecer, Zarqawi podría haber resultado herido gravemente en la reciente ofensiva bautizada como Operación Matador. Incluso podría haber muerto, aunque de momento no hay pruebas.

ACTUALIZACIÓN. Más sobre la Operación Matador en StrategyPage (via Glenn Reynolds):

The foreign terrorists are, to put it mildly, disliked even in this part of Iraq. Although the local smugglers have been making some money working for the terrorists, everyone knows that these wild eyed foreigners mean only death for Iraqis. Either from their suicide bombs, or the battles between them and American and Iraqi troops, the terrorists are considered bad news and best avoided. In fact, the marines received a friendly reception in many villages, the people relieved to see someone who could run off the terrorists and restore order. Iraqi police, troops and border guards have come in behind the marine operation, as the Iraqi government has not had any presence in this area since early 2003, and not much before that

[...] An increasing number of Sunni Arab leaders have distanced themselves from the terrorists. Nearly five hundred Iraqis have been killed by terrorist attacks so far this month, and few Iraqi Sunnis can put a positive spin on this any more. . . . While Sunni Arab propaganda, especially outside Iraq, blames all this on "the American occupation," inside Iraq the mayhem is blamed on foreign fanatics, particularly from Saudi Arabia. Iraq and Saudi Arabia have never had a cozy relationship, and that long standing tension has been pumped up because of all those terror attacks carried out by Saudi Arabian Islamic radicals.

Fijaos la razón que tiene cuando habla de cómo funciona la propaganda sunní fuera de Iraq: sólo tenéis que ver los telediarios de estos días.

ACTUALIZACIÓN II. Sobre todo no dejéis de leer este otro artículo para daros cuenta de que esa oleada de violencia quenotienefininclusotraslaformacióndelnuevogobierno y quehamatadoyaásde400personas es una prueba de que los gloriosos resistentes han perdido, aunque muchos no se hayan dado cuenta.