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ANDERSON COOPER: Now to
Iraq and a tragic case of good news and bad news --
the good news is, 18 people have been arrested in
connection with a killing rampage that left 70 people
dead this week in the city of Tal Afar. The bad news,
those 18 people are Iraqi police officers.
Grimmer still, Tal Afar is the town that President
Bush once championed as a success story.
For more, we turn to CNN's Michael Ware in Baghdad.
Michael, 18 police officers arrested in connection
with these reprisal killings of 70 Sunnis in Tal
Afar. But "The New York Times" reports that the 18
Shia officers were freed after being held for just a
few hours.
If that's true, what does that say about what's going
on in Tal Afar and all across Iraq?
MICHAEL WARE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, what that is
doing, Anderson, is reaffirming the sectarian divide
within the government ranks here, particularly within
the ranks of the Iraqi police service and their
national police commandos.
Indeed, in Tal Afar, this has long been a problem.
Now, Tal Afar is a small ancient city right up on the
Syrian border. It's about 75 percent Sunni. That's
why al Qaeda was able to, at first, get its toehold.
So, there's a 25 percent Shia population.
Now, the U.S. is banking on that Shia population. And
they have supported them in the police service and in
the government up there in that small town.
Now, when about 80 people were killed on Tuesday in
al Qaeda suicide bombings, that night, these police
ran amuck, slaughtering about 70 Sunnis in
retaliation. So, they had been arrested by their own
government and then immediately released, according
to the reports. This just confirms what everyone else
has seen everywhere else across the country. This is
just another facet of the civil war.
COOPER: Last year, President Bush used Tal Afar as an
example of security success. Let's play that tape.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The
military success helped against the terrorists helped
give the citizens of Tal Afar security. And this
allowed them to vote in the elections and begin to
rebuild their city.
The terrorists, those who offer nothing but
destruction and death, are becoming marginalized.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Well, that was then. This is now.
What happened in the interim?
WARE: Well, I was actually in that battle.
Tal Afar was owned by al Qaeda. It was a chief
gateway for its foreign fighters coming in from
Syria, and then distributed out across Iraq itself.
And I was there when the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment
and the Green Berets I was with went in and took it
back.
No one ever believed it would then be free of
violence. That city still remains in the hands of the
so-called government forces, the forces we have seen
who conducted the reprisal killings. So, it has not
returned to al Qaeda.
But to imagine that you can just wipe out the al
Qaeda presence or wipe out al Qaeda's ability to
attack in Tal Afar is nonsensical. Indeed, look at
Baghdad itself, with tens of thousands of American
and Iraqi troops in this huge surge operation. The
one thing that really continues, almost without
hindrance, are the al Qaeda suicide attacks.
COOPER: Is al Qaeda becoming more emboldened? I mean,
it seems like the number of their attacks is
increasing, or at least getting more intense in
recent weeks. Is that a conscious strategy on their
part, or is it just that the other violence has
lessened, so we're noticing it more?
WARE: Well, under the banner of the Islamic State of
Iraq, which is what al Qaeda has declared large parts
of this country, they have said that in response to
the Baghdad security plan, the surge, they were going
to up the ante.
Now, presumably, these waves of suicide strikes are
part of that process of confronting the security
plan, or countering it. But what we're seeing is, al
Qaeda is under pressure in all sorts of places. We're
seeing Anbar tribes being used by American forces to
contract out the fight against al Qaeda. We're seeing
continued arrests of some of its leadership.
Nonetheless, strategically, al Qaeda is still
emboldened, brave enough, emboldened enough to be
able to declare its so-called Islamic state. And,
yes, its attacks continue. Its flow of fighters
continue. It might be under stress, but it's far from
marginalized.
COOPER: Michael Ware, appreciate the reporting.
Thanks, Michael.