U.S.: 80% of Al Qaeda Leaders Removed

Good news out of the Middle East: At a Pentagon news conference, General Ray Odierno claimed that 80 percent of al Qaeda leaders in Iraq have been either captured or killed in the past three months—and that eight of the group's chiefs are still at large. Odierno was quick to note, however, that the terrorist network will attempt to regroup, stressing that the al Qaeda problem in the region will persist: "I will never take my eyes off of al Qaeda," he said. He also stated that U.S. troop casualties have dropped to their lowest level since 2003: "All of those statistics for the first five months of 2010 are the lowest we've had on record." The general was optimistic about the timetable for withdrawal, and said that, as Obama promised, the U.S. could scale back its troops in Iraq to 50,000 within the next three months.