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Iraqi tribes launch battle to drive al-Qaida out of troubled province

� Anger at insurgent attacks provokes backlash
� Baghdad PM backs tribal fighters with cash gifts

Peter Beaumont in Baghdad
Tuesday October 3, 2006
The Guardian


Al-Qaida in Iraq is being pushed out of its strongholds in Anbar province after three days of fighting with Iraq's fiercely independent tribes. A number of al-Qaida fighters have been killed and captured, including Saudis and Syrians.
The clashes erupted after a new grouping calling itself the Anbar Rescue Council - which claims to represent a large number of Anbar tribes and sub-clans - said it intended to clear the province of the terrorist group. It also follows a meeting between tribal leaders and the Iraqi prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, last week in which they asked for government support and arms in their fight against al-Qaida.

The fighting also comes as the Iraqi government has said it believes it is close to capturing the organisation's new leader in Iraq, Abu Ayoub al-Masri. Although the power struggle has not reduced the number of attacks against the US-led coalition in Anbar province, it points to a complex reordering of the lines of conflict in the so-called "Sunni Triangle".

The conflict's underlying causes were highlighted by the leaking of a letter from al-Qaida's leadership to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the organisation's former leader in Iraq, who was killed earlier this year.

In the letter, written in December and found at the house where he died, Zarqawi is rebuked by Atiyah Abd al-Rahman, who is allegedly close to senior al-Qaida figures. He is warned "against attempting to kill any religious scholar or tribal leader who is obeyed, and of good repute in Iraq from among the Sunnis, no matter what." Zarqawi is told to improve relationships with other Sunni groups, use the al-Qaida name more judiciously and told ominously that he might be replaced.

It is these issues that have been at the heart of the rift between al-Qaida and the tribes, many of whose members support the nationalist resistance.

Where once tribal leaders in Anbar and western Iraq welcomed al-Qaida, providing them with safehouses and other logistical support, there is now open war.


For more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,1886076,00.html

"[The tribal leaders] are pragmatic and follow their own interests," said one western official. "When al-Qaida arrived they had lots of money. Now they don't, and it is the government that is throwing lots of money at cities such as Ramadi. Also the al-Qaida types tend to come in with the ideology of killing everyone, which does not fit in with the way that tribal types think about fighting. In short, they are pissed off."