Saturday, April 21, 2007
Insurgent groups fighting against al-Qaeda in Iraq
Security, Tribal
(AP) - At least two major insurgent groups are battling al-Qaida in provinces outside Baghdad, American military commanders said Friday, an indication of a deepening rift between Sunni guerrilla groups in Iraq. U.S. officers say a growing number of Sunni tribes are turning against al-Qaida, repelled by the terror group's sheer brutality and austere religious extremism. The tribes are competing with al-Qaida for influence and control over diminishing territory in the face of U.S. assaults, the officers say. The influx of Sunni fighters to areas outside the capital in advance of the security crackdown in Baghdad may have further unsettled the region.
Even Sunnis who want to cooperate with the Shiite-led government are becoming more emboldened to speak out against al-Qaida. In Anbar province, more than 200 Sunni sheiks have decided to form a political party to oppose the terror group, participants said Friday. The clashes have erupted over the last two to three months, pitting al-Qaida in Iraq against the nationalist 1920 Revolution Brigades in Diyala and Salahuddin provinces north of Baghdad as well as Anbar to the west, U.S. officers said. In Diyala, another hard-line militant Sunni group, the Ansar al-Sunna Army, is also fighting al-Qaida, they said.
"It's happening daily," Lt. Col. Keith Gogas said Thursday in an interview at an Army base in Muqdadiyah, 60 miles northeast of Baghdad. "Our read on it is that that the more moderate, if you will, Sunni insurgents, are finding that their goals and al-Qaida's goals are at odds." American commanders cite al-Qaida's severe brand of Islam, which is so extreme that in Baqouba, al-Qaida has warned street vendors not to place tomatoes beside cucumbers because the vegetables are different genders, Col. David Sutherland said.
Such radicalism has fueled sectarian violence in Iraq and redrawn the demographics of many mixed Sunni-Shiite towns in Diyala, where tens of thousands of Shiites have been forced to flee large population centers. Previously 55 percent Sunni, 45 percent Shiite, Baqouba, where rival insurgents also have clashed, is today 80 percent Sunni and 20 percent Shiite, Sutherland said. The rift among insurgents has also been sparked by reports that some militants have been negotiating with the government and U.S. officials, who are trying to draw Sunni groups away from al-Qaida. Iraqi police and security forces, not Americans, have been negotiating with 1920 Revolution Brigades fighters, who have said "they want some help against al-Qaida," Baker said.
In a recent interview on Al-Jazeera TV, Ibrahim al-Shimmari, a spokesman for a rival group, Islamic Army in Iraq, said he did not recognize al-Qaida's claim to constitute a state. He said there could be no state "under crusader occupation" and vowed resistance against both American forces and Iran, which has close ties to the Shiite majority in Iraq.
The Islamic Army accuses al-Qaida of killing 30 of its members. Al-Shimmari also accuses al-Qaida of assassinating the leader of the 1920s Revolution Brigades, Harith Dhaher al-Dhari, who died March 27 when gunmen fired rocket-propelled grenades on his car outside Baghdad. The Islamic State in Iraq groups eight Sunni insurgent factions, including al-Qaida. Key Sunni insurgent groups are not part of the coalition, including the Islamic Army of Iraq, the Ansar al-Sunna Army and the 1920 Revolution Brigades.
"As tribe after tribe begins to reject al-Qaida, we are witnessing an escalation in violence by AQI (al-Qaida in Iraq) against the tribes," said Maj. Jeff Pool, military spokesman for Anbar. "East of Fallujah in the Zaidon and Zoba'a districts ... 1920 Revolution Brigades are fighting large-scale battles with AQI across their tribal areas."
Speaking in Baqouba, Mixon said that "less and less of the population, by way of the tribes, is willing to be dominated by these groups because if they are, then the tribe loses its influence in the area." And, "because of pressure we have put on them in certain areas, they have begun vying for control of space and the population," he said.
Even Sunnis who want to cooperate with the Shiite-led government are becoming more emboldened to speak out against al-Qaida. In Anbar province, more than 200 Sunni sheiks have decided to form a political party to oppose the terror group, participants said Friday. The clashes have erupted over the last two to three months, pitting al-Qaida in Iraq against the nationalist 1920 Revolution Brigades in Diyala and Salahuddin provinces north of Baghdad as well as Anbar to the west, U.S. officers said. In Diyala, another hard-line militant Sunni group, the Ansar al-Sunna Army, is also fighting al-Qaida, they said.
"It's happening daily," Lt. Col. Keith Gogas said Thursday in an interview at an Army base in Muqdadiyah, 60 miles northeast of Baghdad. "Our read on it is that that the more moderate, if you will, Sunni insurgents, are finding that their goals and al-Qaida's goals are at odds." American commanders cite al-Qaida's severe brand of Islam, which is so extreme that in Baqouba, al-Qaida has warned street vendors not to place tomatoes beside cucumbers because the vegetables are different genders, Col. David Sutherland said.
Such radicalism has fueled sectarian violence in Iraq and redrawn the demographics of many mixed Sunni-Shiite towns in Diyala, where tens of thousands of Shiites have been forced to flee large population centers. Previously 55 percent Sunni, 45 percent Shiite, Baqouba, where rival insurgents also have clashed, is today 80 percent Sunni and 20 percent Shiite, Sutherland said. The rift among insurgents has also been sparked by reports that some militants have been negotiating with the government and U.S. officials, who are trying to draw Sunni groups away from al-Qaida. Iraqi police and security forces, not Americans, have been negotiating with 1920 Revolution Brigades fighters, who have said "they want some help against al-Qaida," Baker said.
In a recent interview on Al-Jazeera TV, Ibrahim al-Shimmari, a spokesman for a rival group, Islamic Army in Iraq, said he did not recognize al-Qaida's claim to constitute a state. He said there could be no state "under crusader occupation" and vowed resistance against both American forces and Iran, which has close ties to the Shiite majority in Iraq.
The Islamic Army accuses al-Qaida of killing 30 of its members. Al-Shimmari also accuses al-Qaida of assassinating the leader of the 1920s Revolution Brigades, Harith Dhaher al-Dhari, who died March 27 when gunmen fired rocket-propelled grenades on his car outside Baghdad. The Islamic State in Iraq groups eight Sunni insurgent factions, including al-Qaida. Key Sunni insurgent groups are not part of the coalition, including the Islamic Army of Iraq, the Ansar al-Sunna Army and the 1920 Revolution Brigades.
"As tribe after tribe begins to reject al-Qaida, we are witnessing an escalation in violence by AQI (al-Qaida in Iraq) against the tribes," said Maj. Jeff Pool, military spokesman for Anbar. "East of Fallujah in the Zaidon and Zoba'a districts ... 1920 Revolution Brigades are fighting large-scale battles with AQI across their tribal areas."
Speaking in Baqouba, Mixon said that "less and less of the population, by way of the tribes, is willing to be dominated by these groups because if they are, then the tribe loses its influence in the area." And, "because of pressure we have put on them in certain areas, they have begun vying for control of space and the population," he said.
Labels: Al Qaeda in Iraq, Ansar al-Sunnah, Baqouba, Diyala, Salahuddin, Sunni guerillas, Sunni tribes, the 1920 Revolution Brigades
Monday, March 26, 2007
Al-Anbar tribal coalition now counts 41 tribes
Tribal, Insurgency
(AP) - Not long ago it would have been unthinkable: a Sunni sheik allying himself publicly with American forces in a xenophobic city at the epicenter of Iraq's Sunni insurgency. Today, there is a change. Sheik Abdul Sattar al-Rishawi is leading a growing movement of Sunni tribesmen who have turned against al-Qaeda-linked insurgents in Anbar province.
The dramatic shift in alliances may have done more in a few months to ease daily street battles and undercut the insurgency here than American forces have achieved in years with arms. The American commander responsible for Ramadi, Col. John W. Charlton, said the newly friendly sheiks, combined with an aggressive counterinsurgency strategy and the presence of thousands of new Sunni police on the streets, have helped cut attacks in the city by half in recent months.
Al-Rishawi, whose father and three brothers were killed by al-Qaeda assassins, said insurgents were "killing innocent people, anyone suspected of opposing them. They brought us nothing but destruction and we finally said, enough is enough." Al-Rishawi founded the Anbar Salvation Council in September with dozens of Sunni tribes. Many of the new newly friendly leaders are believed to have at least tacitly supported the insurgency in the past, though al-Rishawi said he never did.
His movement, also known as the Anbar Awakening, now counts 41 tribes or sub-tribes from Anbar, though al-Rishawi acknowledges that some groups in the province have yet to join. It's unclear how many that is, or much support the movement really has.
And there is opposition. In November, a top Sunni leader who heads the Association of Muslim Scholars, Sheik Harith al-Dhari, described al-Rishawi's movement as "thieves and bandits." And for at least a year, U.S. forces have also witnessed sporadic firefights between Sunni militias and insurgents in Ramadi, reflecting the growing split among Sunnis. They used to describe such skirmishes as "red on red" fighting -- battles between enemies. Now they call it "red on green."
U.S. Lt. Nathan Strickland, also of the 1-77th, said the sheiks were influenced by the realization that Shiite Iran's regional influence was rising, and "the presence of (Sunni) foreign fighters here was disrupting the traditional local tribal structure." Al-Rishawi and other sheiks urged their tribesmen to join the police force, and 4,500 Sunnis heeded the call in Ramadi alone -- a remarkable feat in a city that had almost no police a year ago.
Local Sunnis have deeply resented the overwhelmingly Shiite Iraqi army units the Shiite-dominated government in Baghdad has deployed here. Sunni tribes have begun to realize that if anybody is going to secure the city, it might as well be the sons of Ramadi, Strickland said.
Also pouring through the streets in police trucks fixed with heavy machine-guns are 2,500 Sunni tribesmen who have joined newly created SWAT team-like paramilitary units. Paid by the Interior Ministry with the blessing of U.S. commanders, the so-called Emergency Response Units are clearly loyal to local sheiks. The ERU members were screened and sent either on 45-day police training courses in Jordan or seven-day courses at a military base in Ramadi -- part of an effort to capitalize on the Awakening movement and make use of them as quickly as possible.
Al-Rishawi, whose father and three brothers were killed by al-Qaeda assassins, said insurgents were "killing innocent people, anyone suspected of opposing them. They brought us nothing but destruction and we finally said, enough is enough." Al-Rishawi founded the Anbar Salvation Council in September with dozens of Sunni tribes. Many of the new newly friendly leaders are believed to have at least tacitly supported the insurgency in the past, though al-Rishawi said he never did.
His movement, also known as the Anbar Awakening, now counts 41 tribes or sub-tribes from Anbar, though al-Rishawi acknowledges that some groups in the province have yet to join. It's unclear how many that is, or much support the movement really has.
And there is opposition. In November, a top Sunni leader who heads the Association of Muslim Scholars, Sheik Harith al-Dhari, described al-Rishawi's movement as "thieves and bandits." And for at least a year, U.S. forces have also witnessed sporadic firefights between Sunni militias and insurgents in Ramadi, reflecting the growing split among Sunnis. They used to describe such skirmishes as "red on red" fighting -- battles between enemies. Now they call it "red on green."
U.S. Lt. Nathan Strickland, also of the 1-77th, said the sheiks were influenced by the realization that Shiite Iran's regional influence was rising, and "the presence of (Sunni) foreign fighters here was disrupting the traditional local tribal structure." Al-Rishawi and other sheiks urged their tribesmen to join the police force, and 4,500 Sunnis heeded the call in Ramadi alone -- a remarkable feat in a city that had almost no police a year ago.
Local Sunnis have deeply resented the overwhelmingly Shiite Iraqi army units the Shiite-dominated government in Baghdad has deployed here. Sunni tribes have begun to realize that if anybody is going to secure the city, it might as well be the sons of Ramadi, Strickland said.
Also pouring through the streets in police trucks fixed with heavy machine-guns are 2,500 Sunni tribesmen who have joined newly created SWAT team-like paramilitary units. Paid by the Interior Ministry with the blessing of U.S. commanders, the so-called Emergency Response Units are clearly loyal to local sheiks. The ERU members were screened and sent either on 45-day police training courses in Jordan or seven-day courses at a military base in Ramadi -- part of an effort to capitalize on the Awakening movement and make use of them as quickly as possible.
Labels: Al-Qaeda, Anbar Awakening, Anbar Salvation Council, Muslim Scholars Association, Ramadi, Sheik Abdul Sattar al-Rishawi, Sheik Harith al-Dhari, Sunni tribes
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Iraqi security forces, tribes kill terrorists in Al-Anbar
Security, Tribes, Insurgency
(AFP) - Iraqi security forces killed 39 "terrorists" in a fierce battle in the western Sunni province of Al-Anbar on Tuesday, a top Iraqi official told AFP. Brigadier General Abdel Karim Khalaf, director of the operations centre in the interior ministry, said seven other militants were arrested, including some Arab nationals. The clashes broke out early Tuesday in Ameriyah, southwest of the former rebel town of Fallujah and the site of a recent chlorine gas attack.
Khalaf said security forces supported by paramilitary units formed by Sunni tribes fought the militants in a battle that lasted several hours. Two top militants, Shakir Hadi Jassim and Mohammed Khamis, were among the dead. About 25 Sunni tribes from Anbar have formed an coalition -- Anbar Awakening -- to take on the militants, largely from the Al-Qaeda network, who are operating in the western province.
These tribes have been sending thousands of young men to join the government security forces or their paramilitary units to cooperate with US and Iraqi commanders to fight insurgents. In response, the insurgents have launched attacks on them and modified their tactics to add gas bombs to their arsenal. On Friday, bombers detonated three dirty bombs in Anbar province poisoning 350 civilians, six American soldiers and killing two policemen.
Khalaf said security forces supported by paramilitary units formed by Sunni tribes fought the militants in a battle that lasted several hours. Two top militants, Shakir Hadi Jassim and Mohammed Khamis, were among the dead. About 25 Sunni tribes from Anbar have formed an coalition -- Anbar Awakening -- to take on the militants, largely from the Al-Qaeda network, who are operating in the western province.
These tribes have been sending thousands of young men to join the government security forces or their paramilitary units to cooperate with US and Iraqi commanders to fight insurgents. In response, the insurgents have launched attacks on them and modified their tactics to add gas bombs to their arsenal. On Friday, bombers detonated three dirty bombs in Anbar province poisoning 350 civilians, six American soldiers and killing two policemen.
COMMENT: One of the bombs was detonated near the house of the leader of Anbar Awakening which would have resulted in retaliation on the insurgents by the tribes. As long as the insurgents continue to carry out mass casualty attacks, more tribes will turn againts them and help the security forces. This unites the tribes against the insurgency instead of assisting it, and decreases inter-tribal fighting as the focus is shifted onto the insurgents. COMMENT ENDS.
Labels: Al Anbar, Al Qaeda, Ameriyah, Anbar Awakening, Brigadier General Abdel Karim Khalaf, Sunni tribes
