Posted on 09/18/2006 9:20:39 AM PDT by jmc1969
Nearly all the tribes from Iraq’s volatile Sunni-dominated Anbar Province have agreed to join forces and fight Al Qaeda insurgents and other foreign-backed “terrorists,” an influential tribal leader said Sunday. Iraqi government leaders encouraged the movement.
Twenty-five of about 31 tribes in Anbar, a vast, mostly desert region that stretches westward from Baghdad to the borders of Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, have united against insurgents and gangs that are “killing people for no reason,” said the tribal leader, Sheik Abdul Sattar Buzaigh al-Rishawi.
“We held a meeting earlier and agreed to fight those who call themselves mujahadeen,” Mr. Rishawi said in an interview. “We believe that there is a conspiracy against our Iraqi people. Those terrorists claimed that they are fighters working on liberating Iraq, but they turned out to be killers. Now all the people are fed up and have turned against them.”
It is unclear how quickly or forcefully the tribal fighters will confront Al Qaeda and other insurgents, who mostly operate in and around the provincial capital, Ramadi, despite recurrent American military efforts to stop them. But for American and Iraqi officials, who have tried to persuade the Sunni Arab majority in Anbar to reject the insurgency and embrace Iraqi nationalism, Mr. Rishawi’s comments are seen as an encouraging sign.
“We are in battle with the terrorists who kill Sunnis and Shiites, and we do not respect anyone between us who talks in a sectarian sense,” said Mr. Rishawi, the leader of the Rishawi tribe, a subset of the Dulaimi tribe, the largest in Anbar. Half the Rishawi are Shiite Arabs and half are Sunni, he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
The Schulzeburger Tribe is not agreeing to stop aiding Al-Queda........
Translation: "PLEASE don't let this be true!"
The Pentagon has a chance for a decisive blow against the enemy. We should treat this the way we treated the Northern Alliance and back these guys up with air power and lots of special forces.
With al-Qaeda gone the main reason the Madhi Army exists in Iraq will be gone.
This is very important and needs to get to everyone in the world. Hear them, Europe? Dems? RINOs? Iran? Yes, we need to give these folks the support they need. Don't let them down now that they have seen the light.
Islam, the religion of “killing people for no reason”.
They are certainly not heros and they don't love us, but they won't be blowing themselves up to kill Americans and blowing up Shia mosques to try to cause a civil war. It is the difference between the Taliban and the Northern Alliance.
I know why Iran supports them.
But, I also know the only way they keep their support from a decient chunk of the Shia community is the fear of the terrorists.
By pretending to be the great Shia protector the Madhi Army has maintained its support. Without al-Qaeda many Shia would quickly start asking why this gang is still there.
"An American military official said tribes had fought Sunni insurgents in Anbar in the past but had never formed a united front. “This would be the first we’ve seen of tribes banding together,” said the official, who asked for anonymity because the subject was a delicate one."
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/18/world/middleeast/18iraq.html?pagewanted=2&ei=5087%0A&en=f63c0d6c8d89b9c9&ex=1158724800
Excellent news the tide is turning....but will take awhile to make a difference.
"The Madhi Army is an extension of Iran. They exist, and will continue to exist, to insure Iranian, Shiite control over, at least parts of, Iraq. They will fight Iraqi Sunnis
and even other Iraqi Shiites if they threaten this control."
Yes. The good news there is that the respected leader Sistani explicitly opposes and rejects al-sadr's approach.
LOL! You know it!
hey, this could be a very positive development.
They surely do like conspiracies...but this one we need to encourage1
WOOOOHOOOO!!!
Great post!
I wonder if the NYT had reporters with names like Manfred von Knobelsdorff, Fritz Bracht, and Heinrich Müller write stories about our fight against the Nazis in WW II.
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