Suicide attack kills 5 police officers in Iraqi city of Ramadi

From Dawn.

Three suicide bombers attacked a police station west of Baghdad on Saturday, killing five police officers and wounding 10, police said.The attack took place in Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province.Police shot and killed one of the attackers at the entrance of the station, but the two others managed to detonate their explosives.

Two things are very interesting in this article.

1. An attack happened in Ramadi, which has not experienced Al Qaeda activity for several months.

2. Three suicide bombers caused the deaths of five policemen.

Why?

Al Qaeda is trying to show its resurgence in Ramadi. It failed. Three suicide bombers died to kill five policemen. This is hardly a good trade off, nor spectacular, except given the fact it happened in Ramadi.

Three suicide bomber undoubtedly expected to not only kill several Ramadi police officers, but more emergency personnel and cvilians that responded to the scene of the initial carnage. This did not happen. This fact indicates it was not rehearsed or planned well.

Given the reduction of Al Qaeda's freedom of operations, hence, its ability to rehearse, coupled with the fact that Al Qaeda has been removed from Al Anbar, this attack shows the weakness of Al Qaeda in Iraq vice its strength.

Al Qaeda in Iraq is defeated, plain and simple.

In addition, given the fact that Ramadi police were able to kill one of the attackers, I do not believe Al Qaeda in Iraq will attempt a similar operation in the future. Three Al Qaeda dead. Five Iraqis dead. This trade off is hardly acceptable to Al Qaeda in Iraq.