.Iraqi Sunni leaders offer help to Shi'ite PM
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Sunni tribal leaders who have vowed to drive al Qaeda out of Iraq's most restive province met the Shi'ite premier on Wednesday, marking what Washington hopes will be a breakthrough alliance against Islamist militants.
Sattar al-Buzayi, a Sunni sheikh from Anbar province who has emerged in recent weeks as a leader of a tribal alliance against Osama bin Laden's followers, said he and about 15 other sheikhs had offered their cooperation to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.
"We agreed to cooperate," Buzayi told Reuters. "We haven't agreed to anything specific, but we agreed to cooperate."
Another tribal sheikh, Hameed Farhan, said most tribes backed the agreement, and that the best way forward would be for tribesmen to be recruited into the army and police in Anbar.
"If the government gives us support, you will see what we can do," he told Iraqiya state television, adding that Maliki had promised to send Iraqi forces to Anbar.
Maliki's office issued a statement praising the chiefs for their commitment to fighting the militants.
FIRST MEETING
It was the first time he had met the sheikhs since they pledged to fight al Qaeda in a meeting two weeks ago.
Al Qaeda's Iraq branch has taken control of numerous towns and villages along 250 km (180 miles) of the Euphrates River valley from Falluja, near Baghdad, to the Syrian border.
But their strict interpretation of Sunni Islam and violent rule has alienated traditionally-minded Sunni Muslims, including groups that have supported the insurgency against U.S. forces.
The United States says its 30,000 troops in Anbar -- by far the deadliest province for U.S. forces in Iraq -- cannot defeat the insurgency on their own. Senior commanders say they have been delighted by the proposed security cooperation.
Buzayi confirmed that U.S. and Iraqi forces had killed a senior al Qaeda figure in Anbar on Tuesday. Khalid Ibrahim Mahal has been described as Qaeda's "emir" in the province, although the organisation's precise leadership structure is murky.
Iraqi journalists for Reuters in Ramadi said another figure named Zuhair, seen as a key Qaeda militant and known locally as "The Butcher of Anbar", was killed by tribal gunmen in a car as he walked in one of Ramadi's main commercial streets on Monday.
DIYALA PROVINCE
Elsewhere in Iraq, U.S. forces drew Sunni anger after eight people including four women died during a raid on a house in Baquba in Diyala province, another extremely volatile area.
The U.S. military said it had called in air strikes when people in the house refused commands in Arabic to stop shooting. It said civilian deaths in the raid were "unfortunate".
U.S. commanders have described Diyala province as "the perfect storm", where Shi'ite, Sunni and Kurdish armed groups are all competing for power among a very mixed population.
In south Baghdad, a car bomb near a market in the mainly Shi'ite Bayaa district killed five people and wounded eight.
The area is near another where police commandos clashed with gunmen at a Sunni mosque on Tuesday. The Iraqi military said seven militants died and three were wounded in the battle.
In Hurriya, in northwest Baghdad, where Sunnis have accused Shi'ite militia of attacking them in recent days, 10 people were killed in renewed clashes, police said. Details were unclear.
U.S. forces have focussed their efforts on trying to clear militants out of parts of Baghdad in the past two months.
The Americans say they have reduced violence, especially execution-style sectarian death squad murders, in these areas.
But violence in the city as a whole does not seem to have ebbed, and military spokesman Major General William Caldwell acknowledged that killers may be moving out of neighbourhoods as Americans enter them.
Scotsman
Yeap, them Saudis better build a fence.
The one thing I still don't understand is what the deal is?
What changed?
Sattar al-Buzayi, a Sunni sheikh from Anbar province who has emerged in recent weeks as a leader of a tribal alliance against Osama bin Laden's followers, said he and about 15 other sheikhs had offered their cooperation to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.
"We agreed to cooperate," Buzayi told Reuters. "We haven't agreed to anything specific, but we agreed to cooperate."
Another tribal sheikh, Hameed Farhan, said most tribes backed the agreement, and that the best way forward would be for tribesmen to be recruited into the army and police in Anbar.
"If the government gives us support, you will see what we can do," he told Iraqiya state television, adding that Maliki had promised to send Iraqi forces to Anbar.
Maliki's office issued a statement praising the chiefs for their commitment to fighting the militants.
FIRST MEETING
It was the first time he had met the sheikhs since they pledged to fight al Qaeda in a meeting two weeks ago.
Al Qaeda's Iraq branch has taken control of numerous towns and villages along 250 km (180 miles) of the Euphrates River valley from Falluja, near Baghdad, to the Syrian border.
But their strict interpretation of Sunni Islam and violent rule has alienated traditionally-minded Sunni Muslims, including groups that have supported the insurgency against U.S. forces.
The United States says its 30,000 troops in Anbar -- by far the deadliest province for U.S. forces in Iraq -- cannot defeat the insurgency on their own. Senior commanders say they have been delighted by the proposed security cooperation.
Buzayi confirmed that U.S. and Iraqi forces had killed a senior al Qaeda figure in Anbar on Tuesday. Khalid Ibrahim Mahal has been described as Qaeda's "emir" in the province, although the organisation's precise leadership structure is murky.
Iraqi journalists for Reuters in Ramadi said another figure named Zuhair, seen as a key Qaeda militant and known locally as "The Butcher of Anbar", was killed by tribal gunmen in a car as he walked in one of Ramadi's main commercial streets on Monday.
DIYALA PROVINCE
Elsewhere in Iraq, U.S. forces drew Sunni anger after eight people including four women died during a raid on a house in Baquba in Diyala province, another extremely volatile area.
The U.S. military said it had called in air strikes when people in the house refused commands in Arabic to stop shooting. It said civilian deaths in the raid were "unfortunate".
U.S. commanders have described Diyala province as "the perfect storm", where Shi'ite, Sunni and Kurdish armed groups are all competing for power among a very mixed population.
In south Baghdad, a car bomb near a market in the mainly Shi'ite Bayaa district killed five people and wounded eight.
The area is near another where police commandos clashed with gunmen at a Sunni mosque on Tuesday. The Iraqi military said seven militants died and three were wounded in the battle.
In Hurriya, in northwest Baghdad, where Sunnis have accused Shi'ite militia of attacking them in recent days, 10 people were killed in renewed clashes, police said. Details were unclear.
U.S. forces have focussed their efforts on trying to clear militants out of parts of Baghdad in the past two months.
The Americans say they have reduced violence, especially execution-style sectarian death squad murders, in these areas.
But violence in the city as a whole does not seem to have ebbed, and military spokesman Major General William Caldwell acknowledged that killers may be moving out of neighbourhoods as Americans enter them.
Scotsman
Yeap, them Saudis better build a fence.
The one thing I still don't understand is what the deal is?
What changed?
posted by madtom at 12:16 AM
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