Al Qaeda in Iraq admits that it is on the run

There is a hugely encouraging story about the difficulties that al Qaeda in Iraq is facing in The Washington Post today which Joe Klein highlights. In it, one of al Qaeda in Iraq’s top leaders admits that its membership has plummeted from 12,000 in June 2007 to around 3,500 today. A sign of how rattled the terrorists are is revealed in one of their strategy memos which says

“Do not interfere in social issues such as head covering, the satellite and other social affairs which are against our religion until further notice”.