The capture of two insurgent area commanders in Mosul merits a ?job well done? for Coalition troops. It will have a demoralizing effect on insurgents in that area and hopefully provide some temporary disruption to Abu Musaab al-Zarqawi?s network?s activities in the area. It is difficult, however, after two years of fighting, to determine how much the capture of alleged lieutenants impacts the function of Zarqawi?s organization. They are quickly replaced, but the hope is that each new wave of replacements is increasingly less capable.

The progress that the Coalition has reported against insurgent forces in the north of Iraq , specifically in Mosul, has been very encouraging. The city and the surrounding area are strategically important to both the Coalition and the insurgency, and the news of the capture of insurgent leaders and arrests of hundreds of followers is good news for the Coalition. Colonel Robert Brown, who commands the 1st Brigade of the 25th Infantry Division deployed in and around Mosul, has reported that much intelligence is coming from the people of Mosul, who are fed up with the insurgents. The sustained Coalition military presence in Mosul appears to be working in fostering trust among the population (see photo of 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment Spc Kevin Morris playing paddy-cake with a local Iraqi girl in Tal Afar in northern Iraq). In reports and analyses of the Iraq occupation, a message that has arisen repeatedly is that the best cooperation and intelligence gathering from the local population is garnered when the locals are confident that the Coalition forces will remain in their area (see photo of Iraqi security forces celebrating after detaining high-level Anti-Iraqi suspects in a raid where insurgents were suspected in Tal Afar, on September13). When the locals believe that the forces will leave after a mission and that the insurgents will return, they will not risk their lives to cooperate.