US faced with Iraqi Army turncoats
Foot soldiers and US commanders say Iraq's security forces include officers working with insurgents.
from the July 10, 2007 edition
Page 2 of 3
"Yes, some Sunnis in our battalion are sympathetic to these elements because they still cannot accept an Iraq where Shiites have power," says Maj. Hussein Kadhim.
In an interview, three of the Sunni officers deny the charges and accuse some of their Shiite comrades of running death squads and manning illegal checkpoints in cooperation with the recently formed Khalis Emergency Response Force (ERF), a mostly Shiite paramilitary group, and the Khalis Shiite mayor, Uday Adnan, to cleanse the whole area of Sunnis.
Maj. Wissam Hamid admits, though, that some Sunni villages in Diyala have sought the protection of Al Qaeda operatives against Shiite militias and warns that more will do the same if the militias are not reined in.
These competing interests and allegiances – that often get in the way of the American mission in Diyala to defeat Al Qaeda forces – were on full display here last Thursday.
While Iraqi officers were having lunch, Maj. Faisal Majid, a Sunni, received a call on his cellphone. The person on the other end told him that a mob, backed by a local paramilitary group, had descended on the homes of the Albu-Abali Sunni family. The group was about to loot and set the properties on fire, the caller said.
US Army Maj. Dom Dionne, who is part of the team working with the Iraqi battalion in Khalis, rushed to the scene. When he arrived with his men, not a single shop in the area was open. A police pickup truck blocked a side street where the Albu-Abali homes are located. Members of the ERF, a Shiite paramilitary group dressed in green camouflage and red berets, stood on street corners.
Major Dionne was greeted by the ERF leader Col. Hussein Hamham. One of Colonel Hamham's men showed off a sword that was found in the home of Khaled Albu-Abali. Many in Khalis say he's now a senior leader in the Islamic State in Iraq – an Al Qaeda umbrella group – who goes by the pseudonym Abu Walid al-Shami.
RSS feed
