RAMADI: Sheikh Sattar al-Buzayi summoned other tribal chiefs last week for a war council at his fortified home in Ramadi, the teeming, scarred capital of Iraq’s Anbar province, desert heartland of the Sunni Arabs.
There was a bountiful feast of beef and rice, and a vow of unrelenting battle against the common enemy — Al Qaeda.
“We have to form police and army forces from among our sons to fight these Al Qaeda militants,” Buzayi, who says the militants murdered his father and his brother, told Reuters.
“We have now entered a real battle. It’s either us or them.”
Those words carry a powerful promise for US commanders, who acknowledged last week they cannot defeat Al Qaeda in its Iraqi bases on their own. They need Iraqi tribes — Sunni Arabs like the Al Qaeda militants themselves — to take up the fight.
Those following Iraq’s war from outside read mostly of sectarian conflict that pits the once-dominant Sunnis against the newly empowered Shia government and US troops.
But in Anbar the decisive battle is being fought within the Sunni community itself, between tribal leaders who still have clout among traditionally minded Arabs, and followers of Osama bin Laden’s militant sect, who have seized power in towns on the banks of the Euphrates as it winds from Syria to Baghdad.
A young man who calls himself Abu Farouq, a senior Al Qaeda figure in northern Ramadi, said his fighters want an Islamic caliphate in Anbar. Sheikhs like Buzayi are their enemy.
“We have the right to kill all ‘infidels,’ like the police and army and all those who support them,” he told Reuters.
“This tribal system is un-Islamic. We are proud to kill tribal leaders who are helping the Americans.”
Iraq’s largest province remains a mystery to outsiders. Foreign reporters can generally enter only in the company of US troops. Iraqi journalists work in fear of both militants and US forces.
Reuters Iraqi staff in the area, who cannot be credited for their own safety, met and spoke to people across the province to produce this account.
Anbar residents say the towns of Khalidiya and Haditha are effectively controlled by Al Qaeda, who run Islamic courts, force women to wear an Afghan-style burqa and regularly dump bodies of those they call “traitors” and “spies” on the streets.
But there are also towns like Qaim on the Syrian border where tribesmen have taken matters into their own hands and thrown the Al Qaeda militants out. Others want to emulate them.
“We just want to live like everyone else. We’re sick of all this bloodshed,” said one Ramadi resident, voicing a common sentiment but requesting anonymity for fear of reprisals.
“If you criticise Al Qaeda, you will find yourself dead the next day. We don’t want to live in constant fear,” he added.
How many of Anbar’s million people support Al Qaeda or other rebels is unclear. Most fighters are young locals with little gainful employment. Dozens of foreign Arabs also come in through Syria every month. Against them are ranged 30,000 Americans, 6,400 new local police and Iraqi army units now being trained.
Ramadi itself, the provincial capital of around half a million people, is a major battleground, where US Marines face daily attack and must protect the senior Iraqi officials.
Around 30 tribal leaders from across the province attended the meeting at Buzayi’s home, some making dangerous journeys from towns seen as militant strongholds. They agreed to build up local security forces in order fight against Al Qaeda.
Some Anbar tribes swore opposition after an Al Qaeda suicide bomber killed 70 police recruits in January, most from the Sunni Dulaimi tribe’s Albu Uley clan, who promoted police recruitment.
A month later Al Qaeda claimed the assassination of a Sunni clan leader, Khaled al-Huteymi. That triggered sporadic clashes and assassinations between several clans and the militant group.
As well as taking on the tribes, Al Qaeda militants have also crossed swords with former allies among Sunni nationalists who have battled the Americans since the fall of Saddam Hussein.
This year Al Qaeda said it killed Hameed al-Fahdawi, a leader of the 1920 Revolution Brigades, a nationalist insurgent group.
Al Qaeda’s severe interpretation of Islam means victims come from all walks of life. Law students studying “ungodly laws” have been slain, as have ice sellers, whose product is seen by some to be un-Islamic because the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) had not access to it.
In Falluja, recaptured by US Marines after battles with insurgents in 2004, Al Qaeda militants have shot dead 19 Sunni preachers after sermons against killing local police and troops.
“We are suffering but we can’t complain,” another Ramadi resident said. “Al Qaeda has demolished our city. Bodies are everywhere. What kind of a life is this?”—Reuters
