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Rifts suggest growing isolation of radical groups
By Steve Negus, Iraq correspondent

Published: May 4 2007 03:00 | Last updated: May 4 2007 03:00

The US military said yesterday that it had killed the "information minister" of al-Qaeda's network in Iraq in a clash on Tuesday, contradicting Iraqi reports that a more senior member of the organisation had died.

The US denied that Muharib Abdel-Latif al-Jubouri was the man known as Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, head of the Islamic State of Iraq, an umbrella group of which al-Qaeda is a member.

But US military spokesman Gen William Caldwell said that Jubouri was responsible for the kidnapping of foreigners in Iraq, including the US reporter Jill Carroll and peace activist Tom Fox.

The confusion over identities is typical of the conflict in Iraq, in which the US and Iraqi militaries depend on often less-than-reliable informants to combat shadowy guerilla networks, whose leaders employ noms de guerre.

The three groups forming the "Jihad and Reform Front" were the Islamic Army in Iraq, the Mujahideen Army and Ansar al-Sunna (Sharia Council).

Despite their religious-sounding names, the first two groups are often considered by US officers and Sunni politicians as a "nationalist" branch of the insurgency, led by former military and intelligence officers fighting to push out the Americans and gain a greater share of power within a united Iraq.

Some Sunni politicians say the core of the former ruling Ba'ath party constitutes a third trend, which uses its financial resources to cultivate influence within other armed groups rather than leading them outright.

The Ba'ath, now largely based in Syria, has been led in the past by Izzet Ibrahim al-Duri, former vice-president of Saddam Hussein's Revolutionary Command Council, although he may now be facing an internal challenge to his leadership.

A fourth force in Sunni areas includes counter-insurgency tribal coalitions that co-operate with the US military against al-Qaeda.

Al-Qaeda is believed to be responsible for most of the attacks on Shia civilian targets that in the past year have tipped the battle in central Iraq from an anti-American insurgency to a sectarian civil war.

The US military has made no secret of hopes to turn other insurgent groups against al-Qaeda, and the Iraqi government has been increasingly bullish about the promise of negotiations.

"We are speaking with the hard core [of some insurgent groups] . . . very serious people," says Muwaffaq al-Rubaie, national security adviser, though he refused to say to which groups the government was speaking.

"Their objectives are not impossible . . . review of de- Ba'athification, review of the constitution, reform of this, reform of that. This is part of our national unity platform." He said that the talks had led to splits within one major movement, but refused to state which one.

Al-Qaeda's critics say it began to alienate other Sunni by imposing a brutal form of Islamic law on areas it controlled, killing Sunni Arabs who joined the police, and sometimes murdering members of rival groups.

Tribal militias began turning on al-Qaeda in 2005, and have fought the radicals in towns in the organisation's former stronghold of Anbar province.

In mid-April the Islamic Army in Iraq lashed out on al-Jazeera television at al-Qaeda, accusing it of murdering 30 of its fighters and criticising its goal of forming an Islamic mini-state.

The Islamic Army and other groups remain strongly opposed to the US presence and to the Shia-led government, which they claim is a cat's paw for Iran.

If the nationalist groups do gain ascendancy over al-Qaeda, and if they keep their pledges not to target Iraqi civilians, it could slow the sectarian cycle of violence that has so far pushed out of reach a political solution to the conflict.

Sunni armed groups in Iraq

* Islamic State of Iraq: umbrella organisation that claims to fight to set up a puritan Islamist state in the centre of the country and includes al-Qaeda in Iraq

* Jihad and Reform Front: made up of the Islamic Army in Iraq, the Mujahideen Army and Ansar al-Sunna (Sharia Council), offshoot of the Ansar al-Sunna movement

* Former ruling Ba'ath party resistance, now largely based in Syria. Its leader, Izzet Ibrahim al-Duri, one-time vice-president of Saddam Hussein's Revolutionary Command Council, may now be facing an internal challenge to his leadership.

* Counter-insurgency tribal coalitions such as the Anbar Salvation Council, which sometimes include former insurgents, who co-operate with the US military against al-Qaeda

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