Grim's Hall

City-fighting:

Here's a story from the Washington Post that speaks to some rumors I've been hearing and reading for a while now. It demonstrates that special operations teams have, as I asserted a week ago, the run of Baghdad, which bodes very well for the battle for that city. There is also what I consider to be good news on the subject of assassination tactics:

The covert teams, from the CIA's paramilitary division and the military's special operations group, include snipers and demolition experts schooled in setting house and car bombs. They have reportedly killed more than a handful of individuals, according to one knowledgeable source. They have been in operation for at least one week.

The previously undisclosed operation suggests U.S. efforts to destroy the Iraqi government's leadership are far more extensive than previously known, and have continued since the March 20 airstrike on a residential compound in the suburbs of Baghdad. That attack was launched after CIA Director George J. Tenet presented President Bush with fresh intelligence that Hussein and his two sons, Qusay and Uday, were sleeping in the complex.

Car bombs, house bombs, snipers--assassins. Say what you will about them, they are the best way I know of to kill the enemy without endangering the innocent. It eliminates the enemy's most valuable assets, the ones with the best knowledge of offense, defense, and capabilities. Even the ones not eliminated are inhibited, afraid to move about even in Baghdad.

Finally, these tactics being put to use in Baghdad are likely to be of special use against terrorist organizations. It is always best to capture terrorists alive, of course, so that they can be interrogated. There are places where live capture isn't an option, though. Second best is taking them out, cleanly and on the instant.