A top American military spokesman called for parts of Iraq's "insurgency" to be brought into the political process, while claiming that Al-Qaeda was being hit hard.
"We understand the capabilities, the vulnerabilities and the intentions of each group of the insurgency -- the foreign fighters, the Iraqi rejectionists and the Saddamists," Major General Rick Lynch was quoted as saying by AFP. "The group in the middle, the Iraqi rejectionists -- (which) includes the Shia rejectionists and the Sunni rejectionists -- we believe that deliberate outreach will allow them to participate in the political process and allow them to become part of the solution and not part of the problem," he stated.
According to Lynch, the recent offensive in the western province of Al-Anbar had disrupted activities of Al-Qaeda in Iraq led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. "We come close to Zarqawi continuously and at one point in time, in the not too distant future, we are going to get Zarqawi," he predicted.
On its part, al-Qaeda in Iraq on Wednesday denied that al-Zarqawi was among those killed in a weekend raid and firefight in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul. Al-Qaeda said it delayed responding to the rumors of its leader death "until this lie took its full length to let Muslims know the extent of (the media's) stupidity and shallow thinking."
