Posted on 04/12/2008 9:35:49 AM PDT by Kaslin
"Awakening" movements across Iraq are helping to rid Sunni neighbourhoods of extremist influence, writes Colin Freeman
Khalil Mohammed Abbas, a haggard, chainsmoking ex-Iraqi army officer, has good reason to puff on every cigarette as if it were his last.
After helping his neighbours in Baghdad rise up against the al-Qa'eda thugs who have terrorised them, he lives in constant expectation that the threats text-messaged to his mobile phone may one day come real.
"They are from al-Qa'eda, and they tell me I am a mercenary," he says, reading out the latest missive to bleep into his inbox.
"They ask how I would feel if they kidnapped my wife and children and kill and rape them. But I am not worried about those bastards. I know they could kill me at any moment, but if we do not fight them we will all die anyway."
The man al-Qa'eda describe as a mercenary is indeed a hired gun of sorts, however - as a leader of the so-called Sunni Muslim "Awakening", he is one of around 500 residents in his neighbourhood paid by US forces to help drive al-Qa'eda from their midst.
Many of his comrades previously saw the Americans as their enemies, but their decision to change sides is not just for the money: after two years of al-Qa'eda violence, their hatred of the terrorist group outweighs any lingering dislike of the US "occupiers".
Mr Abbas, 42, is typical. He was one of hundreds of thousands of men left jobless after the Americans disbanded Saddam's Sunni-dominated armies five years ago, a move that drove many Sunnis into the embrace of the anti-US insurgency and its allies of convenience in al-Qa'eda.
But as the group slowly took over Mr Abbas's home neighbourhood, what first appealed to many as a movement to defend Sunni Muslims soon revealed itself as a brutal, bigoted cause.
First, he says, they kidnapped and killed his brother for refusing to join their ranks and wage sectarian war against Iraq's Shia Muslims.
Then, a few days later, a roadside bomb planted by the group to kill Americans killed two of his brother's children.
"Al Qa'eda came here saying they would give freedom," said Mr Abbas. "But they killed the innocent people and made problems between the Sunni and Shia. They are liars and terrorists, not resistance fighters."
For all that they despised the group, for a long time Mr Abbas and his neighbours in Jamia, a once-prosperous middle-class neighbourhood of west Baghdad, were simply too scared to defy them openly.
That changed six months ago, though, when the presence of extra US soldiers in the district as part of the "troop surge" gave them the confidence to start their own rebellion.
Today, Mr Abbas's group is one of around 50 so-called "Awakening" movements across Iraq helping to rid Sunni neighbourhoods of extremist influence.
Effectively armed neighbourhood watch groups, they patrol their fiefdoms under a variety of colourful names: Mr Abbas's group style themselves the Sons of Iraq; others include the nearby Guardians of Ghazaliya, the Ameriya Freedom Fighters, and The Knights of the Two Rivers All are improvisations on the US military's own term of "concerned local citizens", which, in Arabic, translated into the rather uninspiring "worried citizens".
For all their macho names, though, they can often look at first glance more like a Dad's Army than a group of hardened ex-insurgents.
The turmoil of the last few years in Iraq has meant many of its military age men are either dead, in jail, in exile or already enlisted: many of the Sons of Iraq, for example, either old and greying or young with whispy adolescent moustaches.
But their local knowledge is credited with giving the US military a large proportion of the tip-offs that have put al-Qa'eda on the back foot in recent months.
"These guys want to do their job because they are defending their own territory," said Sgt Joshua Holland, 26, of 1/64 Armoured Regiment, which is now training Mr Abbas's men to become fully-fledged policemen. "It's not just about picking up a paycheck."
The Sunday Telegraph joined Mr Abbas on a joint patrol with the US military around Jamia, a neighbourhood this newspaper first visited at the start of the troop surge last year.
hen it was a virtual ghost town, the streets often littered with bodies. Today, by contrast, many shops have reopened and families are returning; locals have even set up a swing park for children to play in.
The Sons of Iraq are not without their critics, not least the Shia-dominated Iraqi government, which claims that many are simply insurgents who have swapped the al-Qa'eda coin for the American one.
Captain Mark Battjes, a senior officer within the 1/64 who helped get them onside, concedes that many are probably "not angels", but says claims that "hard-core" elements have been taken on are exaggerated.
"There might be a few guys among them who were shooting at us before, but I would say that for most, the worst thing they might have done is maybe made the odd phone call on behalf of the insurgents," he said.
"But compare it to Northern Ireland. Gerry Adams and Martin McGuiness were terrorists, but now they're part of the legitimate government."
Arguably the best indicator of their good intentions is the effort which al-Qa'eda has devoted to killing them.
Mr Abbas, who holds the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the Sons of Iraq, stepped into his current role after his predecessor was shot dead outside a mosque in December.
His current deputy, Major Mohammed, survived an assassination attempt in January when two gunmen opened fire on him and a colleague in a restaurant. Despite wounded in the arm and face, he was back at work within weeks.
"The people who shot me are monsters in human bodies," he said. "They are not true Iraqis."
The patrol heads back to base, where, the night before, one of Mr Abbas's informants had rung the incident room with reports of two men robbing people at gunpoint.
It was the first recorded robbery Capt Battjes could recall since arriving here back in June, and the fact that the muggers now felt safe to come out brought a wry smile to his face.
"It sounds terrible, but maybe this is a sign that things are getting back to normal," he said. "That's not terrorism, that's just Detroit-style crime."
great news...thanks to the troopers, ours and theirs.
Unfortunately the MSM here will ignore it
It won’t be long before Hillary Clinton will say that she was instumental in whole troop surge thing and single handedly prevented Iraq from slipping into sectarian warfare, just like she ended terrorism in North Ireland.
May God watch over them and our troops.
While dodging congressional sniper fire?
Great news. Iraq has a bright future.
Thanks for the great news. May God protect them all.
yes, and the more they ignore and we get the truth out, the more people will see the enemy within and shun it.
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