By the time the Mahdi army militiamen continue their sectarian killings in the lawless Baghdad City, the situation is still loose and out of control in the western restive Anbar province.
Al-Sabah State newspaper reported that fierce clashes erupted in Haditha, 140 miles northwest of Baghdad, a town were non-combatant local residents were massacred by U.S. Marines in the aftermath of an insurgent attack. The paper added these clashes came a day after insurgents clashed with Iraqi army troops in Ramadi, the capital of the province.
Subsequent insurgent attacks against U.S. forces in the province, the increase of sectarian violence and the continued insurgent control of several cities in Anbar showed that fighting in the region is far from being over.
Fed up with the al-Qaeda foreign and Iraqi fighters in the province, Anbar tribes met early October and decided to combat al-Qaeda fighters especially after the obvious incapability of the US and Iraqi forces in the cleansing of this area from these fighters.
In their meeting, called “Anbar Waking”, the tribal attendees formed “The Anbar Rescue Council”, a group of tribal armed men in three battalions. The battalions were formed in coordination with the Iraqi interior minister Jawad al-Bolani and his deputy Gen. Ahmed al-Jubouri, al-Hayat newspaper reported. The interior minister promised this council of supporting them financially and providing them with weapons in order to “liberate the province from the armed groups which control most of the parts of the province.”
Where once tribal leaders in Anbar and western Iraq welcomed al-Qaeda, providing them with safe houses and other logistical support, there is now open war.
The number of the new local council’s fighters reached 6,000 in addition to 24,000 men who volunteered to be part of this new force, Hamid al-Hayis, a member of the council told al-Sabah and al-Hayat newspapers.
In a telephone interview with al-Hayat reporter, Hayis said the council called on the Iraqi Prime minister to offer the council the “legal form” to allow the fighters, who have been training for sometime, “to break into [Ramadi] and liberate it from the al-Qaeda.” He said their forces are completely ready to liberate the cities but the US forces did not allow them start their operations.
In a separate interview also with al-Hayat, Sheikh Sattar Abu Reesha, the head of the Rescue Council, said that they are waiting for the weapon supplies promised by the interior minister to start their operations.
“We don’t want to form militias,” Abu Reesha said. “We’ll wait for the government to keep its promise.”
Abu Reesha said that there are more than 1,100 foreign fighters who belong to al-Qaeda while the rest of them are Iraqis, mostly former Iraqi army officers who are now residing in downtown Fallujah, Albu Obaid, and Saddamiya neighborhoods.
Al-Sabah State newspaper reported that fierce clashes erupted in Haditha, 140 miles northwest of Baghdad, a town were non-combatant local residents were massacred by U.S. Marines in the aftermath of an insurgent attack. The paper added these clashes came a day after insurgents clashed with Iraqi army troops in Ramadi, the capital of the province.
Subsequent insurgent attacks against U.S. forces in the province, the increase of sectarian violence and the continued insurgent control of several cities in Anbar showed that fighting in the region is far from being over.
Fed up with the al-Qaeda foreign and Iraqi fighters in the province, Anbar tribes met early October and decided to combat al-Qaeda fighters especially after the obvious incapability of the US and Iraqi forces in the cleansing of this area from these fighters.
In their meeting, called “Anbar Waking”, the tribal attendees formed “The Anbar Rescue Council”, a group of tribal armed men in three battalions. The battalions were formed in coordination with the Iraqi interior minister Jawad al-Bolani and his deputy Gen. Ahmed al-Jubouri, al-Hayat newspaper reported. The interior minister promised this council of supporting them financially and providing them with weapons in order to “liberate the province from the armed groups which control most of the parts of the province.”
Where once tribal leaders in Anbar and western Iraq welcomed al-Qaeda, providing them with safe houses and other logistical support, there is now open war.
The number of the new local council’s fighters reached 6,000 in addition to 24,000 men who volunteered to be part of this new force, Hamid al-Hayis, a member of the council told al-Sabah and al-Hayat newspapers.
In a telephone interview with al-Hayat reporter, Hayis said the council called on the Iraqi Prime minister to offer the council the “legal form” to allow the fighters, who have been training for sometime, “to break into [Ramadi] and liberate it from the al-Qaeda.” He said their forces are completely ready to liberate the cities but the US forces did not allow them start their operations.
In a separate interview also with al-Hayat, Sheikh Sattar Abu Reesha, the head of the Rescue Council, said that they are waiting for the weapon supplies promised by the interior minister to start their operations.
“We don’t want to form militias,” Abu Reesha said. “We’ll wait for the government to keep its promise.”
Abu Reesha said that there are more than 1,100 foreign fighters who belong to al-Qaeda while the rest of them are Iraqis, mostly former Iraqi army officers who are now residing in downtown Fallujah, Albu Obaid, and Saddamiya neighborhoods.
Hayis, the member of the council, added that most of Ramadi areas are controlled by these armed men who even control areas where government directorates, like the education and oil distribution directorates, are located.
The Anbar tribes that have pledged to hunt al-Qaeda in Iraq claimed to have killed a senior al-Qaeda leader, captured several others, and forced more to flee across the Syrian border. “The council... said that members of their tribes killed four Al-Qaeda members, including a prominent leader in the network known as Abu Shujae Al-Yamani, during an armed confrontation in Sankoura town in western Iraq,” reports the Kuwaiti News Agency. “The council had declared earlier that two Al-Qaeda members were killed and six others were arrested and were handed over to the Iraqi authorities.”
It has been a month now since the council was formally established and the government did not actually fully support it or give it the green light as it was promised, Abu Reesha and Hayis mentioned. Despite everything, the council fighters are ready for a major operation.
“Within the coming few days,” Hayis said. “we’ll break into Ramadi whether the government accepted that or not.”
