'Anbar model' under fire
Four Iraqi Sheikhs tied to the US's anti-Al Qaeda plan were killed Monday in Baghdad.
from the June 26, 2007 edition
Page 3 of 4
A recent encounter in the provincial government offices in Kirkuk in northern Iraq provided emblematic, if anecdotal, evidence. A Sunni sheikh jumped to his feet and heartily shook the hand of a stranger in the room he learned was an American visitor.
"Please take a message back to America, tell them all the sheikhs of Kirkuk don't want Al Qaeda here any more," he said. Noting that tribal leaders in other parts of Iraq, particularly in Anbar, are uniting against Al Qaeda, the elegantly dressed elder said, "We are making the same effort here; we do not accept others to impose their rule upon us."
And then the sheikh from Hawija – a particularly troublesome area southwest of Kirkuk that US forces have had trouble wresting from insurgents – added, "We are willing to stop the progress here of the Al Qaeda group, and we will succeed with America's help."
Told later of the incident, one US officer said wryly, "Well, that's nice to hear – because up till now I've been doing more arresting of tribesmen with that sheikh's name than cooperating with them."
Attack on the Mansour Hotel
The suicide bomber who attacked the Mansour Hotel on Monday hit a Baghdad landmark, on the western bank of the Tigris River, where Iraqi politicians, news organizations, and diplomats are based.
The hotel is situated across from an abandoned building that housed the former Ministry of Information during the Saddam Hussein's regime. It's a heavily secured area, with a checkpoint at the top of the road leading to the hotel and a vast metal gate at the entrance of the hotel itself.
Sheikh Rafai al-Fahdawi, a leading member of the Bu-Fahed tribe, which formally joined the Anbar Salvation Council in late April, said his cousin, Sheikh Abdul-Aziz al-Fahdawi, was killed in the attack, as was Sheikh Tariq Al-Assafi, head of the Bu-Assaf tribe, and former Anbar governor Sheikh Fassal al-Guood.
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