still kicking ass (and cutting out tongues) in iraq

we are still killing vigorously in iraq with some help now from the new government, and our allies, in this case the iraqi defense minister, are pretty blunt about what the penalties are for even harboring “terrorists” :

“We are warning those who have given shelter to terrorists that they must stop, kick them out or else we will cut off their hands, heads and tongues as we did in Tal Afar,” Mr. al-Dulaimi added, using language that may have been figurative.

i guesss the key questions there are: how figurative is that language? and who is a terrorist? with 156 dead in these raids over the last two days, i imagine the definition of terrorist is pretty broad.
you have to credit these jokers with having a sense of humor though. this series of raids and kicking down of doors is called “operation restoring rights”.