INFELICITOUS CHOICE OF WORDS. Iraqi forces might have gotten a piece of the current leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq. I like Associated Press's rendition of his c.v.

[Abu Ayyub] Al-Masri took over the leadership of al-Qaida in Iraq after its charismatic leader, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, was killed in a U.S. airstrike last June in Diyala province northeast of Baghdad.

That's not the adjective I'd apply to the Head Headchopper.

Elsewhere in the Southwest Asian Theater, the Revolutionary Guards take hit after hit.

A bomb exploded in southeastern Iran late Friday, near the site where an earlier explosion this week killed 11 members of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards, the state-run news agency IRNA reported.

"Minutes ago, the sound of a bomb explosion was heard in one of Zahedan's streets," the agency said. The report offered no further details, including whether there were casualties.

On Wednesday, a car blew up a bus owned by the elite troops in Zahedan, capital of the Sistan-Baluchestan province on the border with Pakistan.

Is that "elite" as in "they goose as well as the Waffen-SS?"