'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 4 of 4
A leading Iraqi poet, Rahim al-Maliki, who had praised the tribal fight against Al Qaeda in his poems was also killed. He had his own show on state television and several episodes focused on Anbar tribes.
Sheikh Abdul-Aziz helped lead a meeting of the Bu-Faheds on April 25 in which they urged all their kinsmen to stop cooperating with Al Qaeda and to punish and banish all those who cooperate with the terror network.
Sheikh Jabbar al-Fahdawi, one of the senior members of the tribe, had said in that meeting that they received some weapons from the US military but that they were looking for stronger support.
Gaining the support of the Bu-Fahed tribe was a coup for US military forces in the fight against Al Qaeda. The tribe was among the staunchest supporters of Al Qaeda in Anbar.
Sheikh Rafai said that some of the tribal leaders killed in the Mansour blast had met with Maliki the night before to demand more support and a more active role for them in the province following their efforts to reduce the influence of Al Qaeda and regain the provincial capital, Ramadi, from its grip. Ramadi was declared in October as the capital of the Islamic state of Iraq but is now controlled by US and Iraqi forces.
"The support of the government has been weak and not at the level desired," he said in an interview Monday after the bombing.
He said it was unlikely that someone from within the tribe targeted the gathering and hinted that it might have been motivated by sectarian rivalries and carried out by militant Shiite parties that were not happy to see Sunni tribes gaining assertiveness and power.
"There are parties that do not care about the national interest. This attack will only increase our resolve and determination," he said.
Fierce debates have erupted over the wisdom of the US arming tribes and creating a "militia," as the government and the US were hoping to re-create the success in Anbar elsewhere.
This prompted Maliki to issue a statement on Friday to clarify his position. "The government does not fear the arming of the tribes, but it fears chaos and lack of discipline and the emergence of new militias. Everything must be done under the auspices of Iraqi sovereignty and government supervision and within a national context."
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