In Mahmoudiya US forces hunting for three abducted soldiers were met by a suicide truck in the city's centre

Both the abduction and the subsequent attacks bear the hallmarks of an old enemy

But is it an old enemy under a new name? The abduction has been claimed officially on the internet by the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI).

A self-styled parrellel state - they say they are the return of the Islamic Caliphate - a Muslim state founded by Al qaeda in Iraq.

At their head is Omar Albaghdadi the self-proclaimed prince of believers, there is no known picture for him but he has already received the allegiance of Abu Ayub Al Masri

The original successor of Musab al-Zarqawi as al-Qaida's leader in Iraq

They recently announced a cabinet and released footage which - they claim - shows Iraqis, both civillians and insurgents, rapturously greeting the news of the founding of the Islamic State.

Their newly appointed Minister for Public Relations - a necessity in today's celebrity-driven world of insurgency - has already set up two media production companies. Their output has been relentless. They recently collated 700 of their "best" videos.

Although given the insurgents taste for 1980's fades and picture flipping you're left wondering what the videos which didn't quite make the cut look like.

The ISI claim their territory stretches across the Sunni heartland encompassing Baghdad, Anbar, Diyala , Salah al-Din, Ninawa, the Kurdish tribal areas of Kirkuk to the north, and parts of Babel and Wasit as well as Saddam Husseins birthplace Tikrit.

Hence the concentration in recent months of suicide bombs, and executions in these seven provinces

An Iraqi Security Services report obtained by More 4 News identifies the ISI as the richest of the insurgency groups, estimating that between $1bn to $1.5bn has been collected in revenue by the group through foreign donations, enforced taxation and confiscation of the property and funds of Iraqis (both Sunni and Shia) the ISI accuse of collaborating with the "Crusaders".

They also generate revenue from the take-over of refineries such as Baiji north-west of Baghdad (from which alone it is believed they raised $1.5 bn) and extracting road tax from refinery trucks transporting refined fuel.

But for an organisation that has always relied on guerilla tactics is statehood really such a good idea for al-Qaida?

They've traded in the past on the fluid nature of their attacks, their easily replaceable, nameless, faceless operatives, cloaking them in a sense of immortality.

Do they really want to risk identifying a leadership whose death will effect morale or take on the responsibility of running a functioning State?

Which is hard enought but harder still when you keep killing the firemen, garbage collectors, shopkeepers, doctors, teachers...