Iraq rebuilds special forces to check Al-Qaeda recovery

In the midst of a resurgent security crisis, the embattled government of Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki is grasping at an ambitious plan to expand the country’s special forces, apparently preferring a security-led approach to a full commitment to sectarian reconciliation. It is a plan which, under scrutiny, appears to be more difficult and less decisive than Baghdad hopes
By April 2010, when a US guided bomb killed Al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) emir Abu Omar Al-Baghdadi and military commander Abu Ayyub Al-Masri, the US’ Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) had man-hunting in Iraq down to a fine art. GSN readers will remember the blow-by-blow coverage of Iraq’s security comeback in 2008-10, an important aspect of which was the defeat of AQI.