Papers reveal a weaker al Qaeda

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The U.S. military in recent weeks has seized a "huge treasure" of intelligence materials on al Qaeda in Iraq, including a revealing document in which the terror group acknowledges its own "bleak situation" caused by losses on both the public relations and war fronts.

The documents seized in the weeks leading up to the June 7 killing of Abu Musab Zarqawi also have provided intelligence that has helped direct nearly 500 allied combat operations and resulted in the killings of 104 insurgents, the U.S. command in Baghdad said yesterday.

Al Qaeda's acknowledged failures and the military offensive have been so successful that Iraq's national security adviser flatly predicted that Zarqawi's group, al Qaeda in Iraq, is at "the beginning of the end." He said all U.S. troops could be out of Iraq by 2008.

However, al Qaeda in Iraq has promised renewed attacks in retaliation for the U.S. air strike that killed Zarqawi.

Egyptian-born Abu Ayyub al-Masri -- an explosives specialist also known by the alias Sheik Abu Hamza al-Muhajer -- has become the leader of Zarqawi's terror network, Army Maj. Gen. William Caldwell said yesterday. Al Qaeda in Iraq is thought to number in the thousands and includes suicide bombers from Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Jordan and some North African countries.

"Our initial assessment is we think he will probably continue with the same tactics and techniques that Zarqawi did," Gen. Caldwell told reporters. "There is nothing to indicate to us that he would do differently, because he has already been here in this country for almost three, four years now, and has been a part of and associated with the ... killing of Iraqi civilians."

The Baghdad command continued to give an optimistic message on Iraq, boosted by President Bush's surprise visit this week, even as the war's death toll for the U.S. military topped 2,500.

"We believe al Qaeda in Iraq was taken by surprise," said Mowaffak Rubaie, Iraq's national security adviser. "They did not anticipate how powerful the Iraqi security forces are and how the government is on the attack now." He referred to the intelligence take as a "huge treasure."

The government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and U.S. commanders this week ordered a major clampdown on violence in the capital, sending more than 50,000 troops into the streets to conduct raids and patrols.

The seized al Qaeda in Iraq document released yesterday reflects discouragement by the terror group's leadership.