Iraqi fighters are warring with non-Iraqi fighters in the western town of Ramadi, and elsewhere in the country, the US military says. Major General Rick Lynch, a US military spokesman, said on Thursday: "We are finding indications where Iraqi rejectionists are taking up arms and informing on terrorists and foreign fighters. According to the US military, the revolt in Iraq is made up of supporters of Saddam Hussein, non-Iraqi Arab fighters, and an element they call "rejectionists" that disagrees with the presence of US-led forces."As part of our operation with the Iraqi security forces we are looking to drive a wedge between the Iraqi population and specifically the terrorists and foreign fighters," said Lynch. The US military believes the rejectionist element can be neutralised through political progress in the country. Lynch also said that Iraqis are increasingly informing US-led forces about the activities and whereabouts of foreign Islamist fighters in Salah al-Din, Diyala and particularly al-Anbar province.
After boycotting last January's elections, the predominantly Sunni Arab population of Ramadi, capital of al-Anbar province, participated in much larger numbers in the 15 December legislative elections. Peter Rodman, an assistant defence secretary for international affairs, at a conference in Washington on Wednesday, said: "We saw three successful elections last year... In that success of those elections, you can see the gravitational pole working on the Sunni Arab population pulling them into the political process. "We hope this will separate them from the extremists," Rodman said.