Iraqi Tribes Strike Back at Insurgents

[ECH1969]

BAGHDAD, March 6 -- First they killed the chief of the Naim tribe and his son. Then they killed a top tribal sheik who headed the Fallujah city council. Then they assassinated the leader of the al-Jubur tribe. And now the reported killers of all these men -- al-Qaeda in Iraq, the insurgent group of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi -- have a powerful new enemy.

Tribal chiefs in Iraq's western Anbar province and in an area near the northern city of Kirkuk, two regions teeming with insurgents, are vowing to strike back at al-Qaeda in Iraq, a Sunni-led group that is waging war against Sunni tribal leaders who are cooperating with the Iraqi government and the U.S. military. Anbar tribes have formed a militia that has killed 20 insurgents from al-Qaeda in Iraq, leaders said.

Separately, more than 300 tribal chiefs, politicians, clerics, security officials and other community leaders met last week in Hawijah, about 35 miles southwest of Kirkuk, and "declared war" on al-Qaeda in Iraq. In a communique, the participants vowed "the shedding of blood" of anyone involved in "sabotage, killings, kidnappings, targeting police and army, attacking the oil and gas pipelines and their transporters, assassinating the religious and tribal figures, technicians, and doctors."

A fighter in Zarqawi's group, calling himself Abu Azzam, said the al-Anbar Revolutionaries "are collaborators and dogs for America. They kill the mujaheddin to get money from the American crusaders. They are cowards and we have killed a lot of them. . . . All the people here support us and our jihad against the Americans and their followers."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/06/AR2006030601596.html

[ConcernedCanuk]

1. "our jihad against the Americans and their followers"

.
.
.

What a surprise

They don't like military from half-way around the globe in their country . .

Iraq and Iraqis WERE no threat to the USA

but they are NOW

well done George!!

"We're safer now" ?

yeah right

:eyes:

[Roland99]

2. Another Abu Azzam? Or is this the original one reincarnated?

[CHIMO]

3. Iraqi Women Make Rare Trip to U.S. to Tell Their Stories of Life Under Occ

Iraqi Women Make Rare Trip to U.S. to Tell Their Stories of Life Under Occupation

AMY GOODMAN: We continue with our guests today. We are joined by Faiza Al-Araji, who is a civil engineer, who has just flown in from Amman, lived in Iraq until this past summer when her son was kidnapped. We are also joined by Eman Ahmad Khamas, who is a journalist, translator and activist, a member of the Women’s Will organization. We welcome you both. I asked you during the break, Faiza, are you Sunni or Shia?

FAIZA AL-ARAJI: I don't like this question. I'm Iraqi. And I'm insisting I am Iraqi. I don't want to use these new titles, have been entered Iraq after Bremer. When he entered Iraq he put this division for the Iraqi people. And we refuse it.

AMY GOODMAN: What do you mean it’s just been introduced? I mean, there is a sense in the media in this country that this is age-old sectarian, almost tribal hatred.

FAIZA AL-ARAJI: Oh, my God. Yeah, they are trying to tell you another story. The reality is there. We are brothers and sisters. We are Muslim, my dear. This is the identity of the nation. We are Muslim. But they are trying to divide the people, to go to the sub-identity, to make a cause of fighting or to provoke the people against each other. And we refuse it.

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/03/06/1424239

And now for the rest of the story.

[Ignacio Upton]

4. Good

the insurgents are just as much a foreign presence as we are. While the Iraqi people don't want us there, they don't want a bunch of foreign fighters coming into their country and using it for political grandstanding, and because it disrupts day-to-day life. I think that the tribes will actually have more success than us in curtailing the insurgents because they have the credibility to encourage the public to fight back, whereas our reputation has been unfortunately tarnished by bad apples who run Abu Ghraib and by our Idiot in Chief.

[Warren Stupidity]

5. The insurgents are not a 'foreign presence'.

You have simply bought the bullshit. This article is just psyops from our ministry of disinformation. There are essentially no foreign fighters in Iraq other than our troops. The insurgency is the people of Iraq resisting the illegal and immoral occupation of their land by our army.