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| Iraq |
| Sunni Insurgents Battle in Baghdad [Against al Qaeda In Iraq] |
| 2007-06-01 |
| That Postie headline editor just couldn't find the words to announce a Sunni vs. Sunni conflict. Good article, though. More at the link BAGHDAD, May 31 -- Sunni residents of a west Baghdad neighborhood used assault rifles and a roadside bomb to battle the Sunni insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq this week, leaving at least 28 people dead and six injured, residents said Thursday. The mayor of the Amiriyah neighborhood, Mohammed Abdul Khaliq, said in a telephone interview that residents were rising up to try to expel al-Qaeda in Iraq, which has alienated other Sunnis with its indiscriminate violence and attacks on members of its own sect. "I think this is going to be the end of the al-Qaeda presence here," Abdul Khaliq said of the fighting Wednesday and Thursday, which began over accusations that al-Qaeda in Iraq had executed Sunnis without reason. The Baghdad battle is evidence of a deepening split between some Sunni insurgent groups and al-Qaeda in Iraq, which claims allegiance to Osama bin Laden. Although similar rebellions occurred in Diyala province earlier this year, the fighting this week appears to be the first time the conflict has reached the streets of Baghdad. Abdul Khaliq said he hoped U.S. forces would stay out of the fight. "But if the Americans interfere, it will blow up, because they are the enemy of us both, and we will unite against them and stop fighting each other," he said. In the western province of Anbar, which is predominantly Sunni, tribal leaders have formed an umbrella group, the Anbar Salvation Council, to join with U.S. and Iraqi troops in a common fight against al-Qaeda in Iraq, which used to dominate the province. Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, the No. 2 commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, said at a news briefing Thursday that 12,000 Anbar residents have joined the Iraqi security forces in the first five months of this year, compared with 1,000 in all of last year. Tribal leaders say they are signing up because they oppose al-Qaeda in Iraq's extremist ideologies and its attacks on local residents, but critics of the council say the U.S. effort in Anbar amounts to backing one private army against another. In an attack clearly meant to intimidate the tribes, a suicide bomber wearing an explosives vest blew himself up Thursday among 150 recruits waiting to enter a police compound in the Anbar city of Fallujah, killing 25 people and wounding at least 20, said Ayman Hussein Zaidan, an official at Fallujah General Hospital. In a second suicide attack Thursday in Anbar, six people were killed, including three policemen, when a car bomb exploded at a telephone exchange in Ramadi, the provincial capital about 60 miles west of Baghdad, said Col. Tariq al-Dulaimi, a local police chief. He said seven police officers and two bystanders were wounded in the blast. The Amiriyah neighborhood, located near Baghdad International Airport in the western part of the capital, has been hit hard by rampant violence, a lack of services and the expulsion of Shiite families. It is considered a virtual no man's land. Problems arose on Tuesday when the Islamic Army, a powerful Sunni insurgent group, posted a statement at a local mosque criticizing al-Qaeda in Iraq for killing dozens of other Sunnis in Fallujah and Baghdad "on suspicion only," without sufficient evidence that they had done something wrong, according to a copy sent to The Washington Post. The message warned al-Qaeda in Iraq to stop the practice, which it said could lead to clashes between them. Late Wednesday afternoon, according to residents reached by phone who would not be quoted by name for security reasons, an armed group scrawled graffiti on a school wall reading: "Down with al-Qaeda, long live the honest resistance." When al-Qaeda in Iraq members came to wipe away the writing, a roadside bomb exploded nearby, killing three of them, residents said. I bet they didn't see that coming. Al-Qaeda in Iraq then attacked a mosque associated with the Islamic Army, killing the group's leader, Razi al-Zobai, and four other fighters, complaining in a statement that the Islamic Army had become involved in the political process in Iraq, residents said. In retaliation, the Islamic Army attacked a mosque associated with al-Qaeda in Iraq, killing one of the group's leaders, known as Sheik Hamid, and four other members, including Waleed Saber Tikriti, a doctor who treated al-Qaeda in Iraq's wounded, residents said. On Thursday, al-Qaeda in Iraq reinforcements arrived from other Baghdad neighborhoods, residents said, and furious fighting erupted between the groups, lasting about four hours. Nine fighters from al-Qaeda in Iraq and six from the Islamic Army were killed, according to Abu Ahmed al-Baghdadi, an Islamic Army leader reached by telephone. He said six civilians were injured by a mortar round fired by al-Qaeda in Iraq "criminals." Baghdadi said about 40 members of al-Qaeda in Iraq fought a force of 30 fighters from the Islamic Army and the 1920 Revolution Brigades, another Sunni insurgent group. The latter two groups were aided by local residents who oppose al-Qaeda in Iraq, he said. Despite being outnumbered, the Sunni insurgent leaders asserted, they had a significant advantage over al-Qaeda in Iraq because its members were staying in abandoned Shiite houses that were well known, while the Sunni insurgents were blended among the population. Late Thursday, a senior Iraqi army official in Baghdad, Brig. Gen. Qasim Atta, said on state-run al-Iraqiya television that calm had returned to the neighborhood. |
| Posted by:mrp |
| #16 an armed group scrawled graffiti on a school wall reading: "Down with al-Qaeda, long live the honest resistance." When al-Qaeda in Iraq members came to wipe away the writing, a roadside bomb exploded nearby, killing three of them O I love it, a booby trap nets three boobies (perhaps a lexicon change is in order, "A stupid trap" rings better than "Booby Trap", I tend to think of "boobies in bras" when I hear that.) |
| Posted by: Redneck Jim 2007-06-01 23:34 |
| #15 Very cool, indeed, Justrand. Thanks! And very good news that with the hand-over to the Kurds, one third of Iraq is now completely self-governing, if I read the article correctly. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2007-06-01 20:18 |
| #14 Slightly OT, but with a hattip to GatewayPundit: http://gatewaypundit.blogspot.com/2007/06/peshmerga-women-steal-show-at-iraqi.html Some VERY bad-ass women! follow the link within the article labeled: "The Infamous Peshmerga Women". Good read!! |
| Posted by: Justrand 2007-06-01 18:20 |
| #13 Zenster. I love your pessimistic optimism. |
| Posted by: Captain Lewis 2007-06-01 18:02 |
| #12 less Islamic elements Once again, the old "more Islamic than thou" crapulence. This is and will be the death of Islam if they somehow manage to avoid nuclear annihilation. Still more |
| Posted by: Zenster 2007-06-01 15:32 |
| #11 ummm... go, go Sunni! go, go other Sunni! Ima channel our resident Israeli cynic but I repeats myself LOL! stop it! Ima laughing to much..but I repeat myself! lol |
| Posted by: RD 2007-06-01 15:18 |
| #10 Abdul Khaliq said he hoped U.S. forces would stay out of the fight. "But if the Americans interfere, it will blow up, because they are the enemy of us both, and we will unite against them and stop fighting each other," he said. Speaking for myself, jackass, it's no skin off my back if you end up with your throat slit so I'd be all too happy to leave you to the tender mercies of Moqtada al Sadr and his Iranian puppet masters if only Bush could see his way clear to bomb the crap out of Iran first. But you really should be careful what you ask for. |
| Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 2007-06-01 14:37 |
| #9 Abdul Khaliq said he hoped U.S. forces would stay out of the fight. "But if the Americans interfere, it will blow up, because they are the enemy of us both, and we will unite against them and stop fighting each other," he said. This comment is a tell that this article is infiltrated with propaganda. At the very least it represents the clueless, inaccurate type of reporting that we have become accustomed to. Nobody EVER resists help killing their enemies. The enemy of my enemy is a constant rule of warfighting - secondary only to divide and conquer. One can just picture ol' Abdul Kahliq making himself available to the reporter for that quote. And the gullible reporter swallowed it hook, line and sinker because he knew his editor would love it. I think you have to be void of common sense to work for these papers. |
| Posted by: Angaiger Tojo1904 2007-06-01 14:26 |
| #8 Sounds more like purple-on-red: bad guys who are coming over to our side (or might be tempted to do so if they can get the same deal Robert E. Lee got at Appomattox) battling the other bad guys who aren't. I love this part: an armed group scrawled graffiti on a school wall reading: "Down with al-Qaeda, long live the honest resistance." When al-Qaeda in Iraq members came to wipe away the writing, a roadside bomb exploded nearby, killing three of them |
| Posted by: Mike 2007-06-01 14:17 |
| #7 Sorry. ItM link |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2007-06-01 14:06 |
| #6 Iraq the Model offers his thoughts: Red on Red in Amiriyah Fighting in a western Baghdad district between two insurgent groups continued for the 2nd day, eye witnesses told ITM. The clashes erupted yesterday around noon between two groups of insurgents that are competing for control in the Amiriya district, one of Baghdad's most violent and lawless districts. The two groups, teams actually, were later identified; on one side there's al-Qaeda and the Islamic state in Iraq and on the other there's the Islamic army and 'Jaish al-Mujahideen' (The brigades of the 1920 revolution in another account), the latter are know to be largely military and intelligence officers of the former regime as well as members of the Baath Party. "I saw seven or eight bodies of militants who were killed in the clashes lying on the ground" one eyewitness said this morning. This was before the fighting resumed after a short pause. Sot al-Iraq reports that machineguns, RPG's and mortars were used in the clashes and that masked men, believed to be reinforcements for al-Qaeda began pouring into the district. Islamic extremists like al-Qaeda often clash with the pan-nationalist, less Islamic elements of insurgent groups which are largely made up former military officers and Baathists, so this is not the first time that such clashes occur in Amiriyah or Adhamiyah where both groups have strong presence but this time the clashes are fiercer and lasted longer than any previous incident. AP has a quite different story though: A battle raged in west Baghdad on Thursday after residents rose up against al-Qaida and called for U.S. military help to end random gunfire that forced people to huddle indoors and threats that kept students from final exams, a member of the district council said. While I so much wish this was true, the information I received from inside Amiriyah says that the fighting was mostly between the two groups mentioned above and the intervention by the American troops was only a routine response to the spike in violence. Either way, al-Qaeda is under pressure on more than one front and it has lost a bunch of its commanders and fighters and this is always good news. One correction to the AP story, Hajj Hameed was the chief of the Sharia courts of al-Qaeda in Amiriyah, not the leader of the network. Only god knows how many innocent people were executed by orders from this terrorist. Whether killed by Baathists, fellow terrorists, good Iraqis or American troops. Good riddance! |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2007-06-01 14:05 |
| #5 Heyas TW. I first heard this as a lad watching Aliens...it's slang for "all is well" or "well and good". Urban Dictionary points to aeronautical term for radio signals in terms of clarity and strenth measured in scales of 1 to 5..with 5 being the strongest measure. And yes...sidelines is the football reference. Football, popcorn, and red-on-red...it's gonna be a good day. |
| Posted by: Rex Mundi 2007-06-01 13:54 |
| #4 Does arming-up the losing side count as interference? |
| Posted by: gorb 2007-06-01 13:31 |
| #3 We're on the sidelines 5x5 That sounds like an obscure football reference to me, Rex Mundi dear. Would you be so kind as to translate for the popular culturally illiterate? Thanks! |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2007-06-01 13:23 |
| #2 "But if the Americans interfere, it will blow up, because they are the enemy of us both, and we will unite against them and stop fighting each other," he said. No worries, Khaliq-dude. We're on the sidelines 5x5, with plenty of popcorn. When yer all done bleeding yerselves white, we'll take er from there. |
| Posted by: Rex Mundi 2007-06-01 11:14 |
| #1 ummm... go, go Sunni! go, go other Sunni! Ima channel our resident Israeli cynic but I repeats myself |
| Posted by: Shipman 2007-06-01 10:50 |