Mar 25 2007
Updates From The War On Terror Front Lines
The US news media seems incapable of performing its most basic duty: informing the people of the United States of critical events in the world. It seems to have decided to bequeath that responsibility to foreign news media organizations. OK, so be it. First from Ramadi we have more Sunni Sheiks turning on al Qaeda in order to ally with the new Iraqi government and the American coalition:
Not long ago it would have been unthinkable: a Sunni sheik allying himself publicly with American forces in a xenophobic city at the epicenter of Iraq’s Sunni insurgency.
Today, there is no mistaking whose side Sheik Abdul Sattar al-Rishawi is on. Outside his walled home, a U.S. tank is on permanent guard beside a clutch of towering date palms and a protective dirt berm.
The 36-year-old sheik is leading a growing movement of Sunni tribesmen who have turned against al-Qaida-linked insurgents in Anbar province. The dramatic shift in alliances may have done more in a few months to ease daily street battles and undercut the insurgency here than American forces have achieved in years with arms.
The American commander responsible for Ramadi, Col. John W. Charlton, said the newly friendly sheiks, combined with an aggressive counterinsurgency strategy and the presence of thousands of new Sunni police on the streets, have helped cut attacks in the city by half in recent months.
Everyone wants to be on the winning side – Sunnis included. The fact is the surge is still not even at full strength and we see panic by al Qaeda and desperate acts by their Iranian state sponsors. Why is this happening? al Qaeda’s brutality has gone too far with their killing of key Iraqis and Iraqis in general:
But in January 2006 a suicide bomber attacked a police recruiting drive, killing 70 people. Insurgents killed at least four sheiks for cooperating with the Americans, and many others fled.
The killings left the effort in limbo, until a turning point; insurgents killed a prominent sheik last year and refused to let family members bury the body for four days, enraging Sunni tribesmen, said U.S. Lt. Col. Miciotto Johnson, who heads the 1st Battalion, 77th Armored Regiment and visits al-Rishawi frequently in western Ramadi.
It is not Americans making Saddam look good – it is al Qaeda. And that has been their downfall. Now they are trying to distance themselves from their own Chlorine gas attacks. Too late – no one is buying their BS anymore. And the trend is growing:
Al-Rishawi and other sheiks urged their tribesmen to join the police force, and 4,500 Sunnis heeded the call in Ramadi alone – a remarkable feat in a city that had almost no police a year ago.
Local Sunnis have deeply resented the overwhelmingly Shiite Iraqi army units the Shiite-dominated government in Baghdad has deployed here. Sunni tribes have begun to realize that if anybody is going to secure the city, it might as well be the sons of Ramadi, Strickland said.
Also pouring through the streets in police trucks fixed with heavy machine-guns are 2,500 Sunni tribesmen who have joined newly created SWAT team-like paramilitary units. Paid by the Interior Ministry with the blessing of U.S. commanders, the so-called Emergency Response Units are clearly loyal to local sheiks.
It is not clear why the US media has its head in the sand over all this news. But they do. At least they are paying attention to the Iranian nutcases and their clear acts of war against the UK, the US and Iraq. And apparently this is not the first time the Iranians have been attacking our coalition:
According to a U.S. Army report out of Iraq obtained by U.S. News, American troops, acting as advisers for Iraqi border guards, were recently surrounded and attacked by a larger unit of Iranian soldiers, well within the border of Iraq.
The report highlights the details: A platoon of Iranian soldiers on the Iraqi side of the border fired rocket-propelled grenades and used small arms against a joint patrol of U.S. and Iraqi soldiers east of Balad Ruz. Four Iraqi Army soldiers, one interpreter, and one Iraqi border policeman remain unaccounted for after the September incident in eastern Diyala, 75 miles east of Baghdad.
During a joint border patrol, both American and Iraqi soldiers saw two Iranian soldiers run from Iraq back across the Iranian border as they approached. The patrol then came upon a single Iranian soldier, on the Iraqi side of the border, who did not flee.
While the joint U.S.-Iraqi patrol was speaking with the soldier, according to the report, the patrol was “approached by a platoon-size element of Iranian soldiers.” An Iranian border captain then told the U.S. and Iraqi soldiers that “if they tried to leave their location, the Iranians would fire upon them.” During this conversation with the Iranian captain, Iranian forces began firing and continued when U.S. troops tried to withdraw.
We are now legally at war with Iran. The fact President Bush and Tony Blair and Prime Minister Maliki have held back is a testament to their patience and humanity. But if Iran continues they will have no choice but to respond with force.
And things are not going well for the al Qaeda foreign fighters in Pakistan. It seems all efforts at a ceasefire in Souther Waziristan have failed an up to 50 Uzbek terrorists may have gone to Allah in the aftermath. It is interesting that these clashes are driven by local tribesman against the al Qaeda thugs, and the al Qaeda thugs are getting their butts whooped in the conflict. It seems the Muslim street is fed up with al Qaeda in many places around the region.
AJ, I wouldn’t quote ANYTHING that Jihadunspun publishes. Chances are pretty close to 100% than they made it up at the keyboard. That site is pretty much junk.
But in other news:
Looks like the hardcore Sunni jihadis are leaving Iraq and heading to Lebanon.
oops, messed up closing that link.
I’m wondering why you refer to the Iranians as “sponsors” of al-Qaeda ? I know there have been times when they tolerated their presence/aided them in escaping/cooperated with them in drug smuggling; but aren’t they Shi’ite and Sunni respectively ?