Friday, June 01, 2007
Anti-Qaeda alliance gathers momentum
Insurgency
(AKI) -- A fierce battle between local Sunni residents and al-Qaeda insurgents in an outlying Baghdad neighbourhood this week is evidence that moves to isolate the terror group by other Sunnis are taking hold even in the capital. According to a detailed report on the Washington Post on Friday a battle this week in the western Amiriyah area has claimed at least 28 lives. It quoted the local mayor Mohammed Abdul Khaliq as saying that residents, alienated by the indiscriminate violence of its fellow Sunnis, rose up to force al-Qaeda out.
The microcosm mirrors what is happening in the western provinces, especially al-Anbar and Diyala, where Sunni tribes have united in an anti-Qaeda alliance. "I think this is going to be the end of the al-Qaeda presence here," mayor Abdul Khaliq told the Washington Post in a phone interview. He said that the fierce fighting Wednesday and Thursday began over accusations that al-Qaeda in Iraq had executed Sunnis without reason.
It appears to be the first time that a dynamic of isolation, which has been at work in the mainly Sunni and restive western province of al-Anbar, has spread to the capital.
Sunni tribal leaders recently formed an umbrella group, the Anbar Salvation Council, to join with U.S. and Iraqi troops in a common fight against al-Qaeda in Iraq, which used to dominate the province. They resent what they see as indiscriminate violence against civilians, including women and children, and also the presence of foreign fighters in al-Qaeda ranks.
According to the US coalition, 12,000 al-Anbar residents have joined the Iraqi security forces so far this year, compared with 1,000 in all of last year. In an attack clearly meant to intimidate the tribes, a suicide bomber blew himself up Thursday among 150 recruits waiting to enter a police compound in Fallujah. Later that day, six people were killed, including three policemen, in a carbomb blast in Ramadi.
Close to the international airport, Amiriyah has seen a mass exodus of Shiites and ongoing violence, and is considered a virtual no mans land.
Trouble arose on Tuesday, the Washington Post reports, when the Islamic Army, a powerful Sunni insurgent group, posted a statement at a local mosque criticizing al-Qaeda in Iraq for killing dozens of other Sunnis in Fallujah and Baghdad "on suspicion only," and warned them to stop the practice. "Down with al-Qaeda, long live the honest resistance." was graffitied on a wall on Wednesday and when al-Qaeda in Iraq members came to wipe the slogan off, a roadside bomb exploded killing three of them.
Al-Qaeda in Iraq's reprisal came in the form of an attack on a mosque killing the Islamic Army's leader, Razi al-Zobai, and complaining that the Islamic Army had become involved in the political process in Iraq, residents said. The Islamic Army retaliated in kind, striking a mosque and killing one of the group's leaders. As the fighting intensified, al-Qaeda in Iraq called in reinforcements arrived from other areas of the capital residents said. A four hour long battle left at least 15 fighters dead.
The microcosm mirrors what is happening in the western provinces, especially al-Anbar and Diyala, where Sunni tribes have united in an anti-Qaeda alliance. "I think this is going to be the end of the al-Qaeda presence here," mayor Abdul Khaliq told the Washington Post in a phone interview. He said that the fierce fighting Wednesday and Thursday began over accusations that al-Qaeda in Iraq had executed Sunnis without reason.
It appears to be the first time that a dynamic of isolation, which has been at work in the mainly Sunni and restive western province of al-Anbar, has spread to the capital.
Sunni tribal leaders recently formed an umbrella group, the Anbar Salvation Council, to join with U.S. and Iraqi troops in a common fight against al-Qaeda in Iraq, which used to dominate the province. They resent what they see as indiscriminate violence against civilians, including women and children, and also the presence of foreign fighters in al-Qaeda ranks.
According to the US coalition, 12,000 al-Anbar residents have joined the Iraqi security forces so far this year, compared with 1,000 in all of last year. In an attack clearly meant to intimidate the tribes, a suicide bomber blew himself up Thursday among 150 recruits waiting to enter a police compound in Fallujah. Later that day, six people were killed, including three policemen, in a carbomb blast in Ramadi.
Close to the international airport, Amiriyah has seen a mass exodus of Shiites and ongoing violence, and is considered a virtual no mans land.
Trouble arose on Tuesday, the Washington Post reports, when the Islamic Army, a powerful Sunni insurgent group, posted a statement at a local mosque criticizing al-Qaeda in Iraq for killing dozens of other Sunnis in Fallujah and Baghdad "on suspicion only," and warned them to stop the practice. "Down with al-Qaeda, long live the honest resistance." was graffitied on a wall on Wednesday and when al-Qaeda in Iraq members came to wipe the slogan off, a roadside bomb exploded killing three of them.
Al-Qaeda in Iraq's reprisal came in the form of an attack on a mosque killing the Islamic Army's leader, Razi al-Zobai, and complaining that the Islamic Army had become involved in the political process in Iraq, residents said. The Islamic Army retaliated in kind, striking a mosque and killing one of the group's leaders. As the fighting intensified, al-Qaeda in Iraq called in reinforcements arrived from other areas of the capital residents said. A four hour long battle left at least 15 fighters dead.
Labels: abduction, Al Qaeda in Iraq, Al-Anbar, Amariyah, Anbar Salvation Council, Diyala, Fallujah, Islamic Army, Ramadi, Razi al-Zobai, suicide bomber
