Iraq Insurgent's 'Regrouping'

[eliteforce]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,2220868,00.html

Iraqi insurgents regrouping, says Sunni resistance leader


Jonathan Steele in Damascus
Monday December 3, 2007
The Guardian

Iraq's main Sunni-led resistance groups have scaled back their attacks on US forces in Baghdad and parts of Anbar province in a deliberate strategy aimed at regrouping, retraining, and waiting out George Bush's "surge", a key insurgent leader has told the Guardian.

US officials recently reported a 55% drop in attacks across Iraq. One explanation they give is the presence of 30,000 extra US troops deployed this summer. The other is the decision by dozens of Sunni tribal leaders to accept money and weapons from the Americans in return for confronting al-Qaida militants who attack civilians. They call their movement al-Sahwa (the Awakening).

The resistance groups are another factor in the complex equation in Iraq's Sunni areas. "We oppose al-Qaida as well as al-Sahwa," the director of the political department of the 1920 Revolution Brigades told the Guardian in Damascus in a rare interview with a western reporter.

Using the nom de guerre Dr A**allah Suleiman Omary, he went on: "Al-Sahwa has made a deal with the US to take charge of their local areas and not hit US troops, while the resistance's purpose is to drive the occupiers out of Iraq. We are waiting in al-Sahwa areas. We disagree with them but do not fight them. We have shifted our operations to other areas".

Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province, has seen some of the heaviest fighting since the 2003 invasion but has become conspicuously calmer in recent months. "There is no resistance at the moment in Ramadi," Omary said. He described the tribal Awakening movement as "good for pushing al-Qaida out but negative for the resistance". "There are no armed clashes between us and them but they prevent us working in their areas," he added.

Omary's group is named after a Sunni uprising against British occupation forces in 1920. The group recently joined seven other Sunni-led armed resistance organisations to form the Front for Struggle and Transformation, a political committee aimed at drawing up a programme for national unity and hastening a US withdrawal.

Besides Ramadi, the Awakening movement was also operating in Sunni-majority districts of Baghdad, such as Ameriya, Adhamiya, and parts of Ghazaliya and Jihad, Omary said. He predicted it was unlikely to last for more than a few months. It was a "temporary deal" with the US and would split apart as people realised the Americans' true intentions.

He cited last week's announcement that the Bush administration plans to work with the Shia-led government of Nuri al-Maliki on arrangements for long-term US military bases and an open-ended occupation in Iraq.

Operating in small cells, Sunni resistance groups have been responsible for most of the roadside bomb attacks on US vehicles in western Iraq. While they are starting to unite at the political level, their suspicion of Iraq's Shia militias shows no sign of abating. "We helped [Shia cleric] Moqtada al-Sadr in 2004 when the Americans attacked Najaf, but see no point in dialogue with him now," Omary said.

Although Sadr presented himself as a nationalist and was unusual among Shia politicians in calling for an early end to the US occupation, Omary added: "He's still supporting this sectarian government in Baghdad. When his militias attack the United States they do it for their own political reasons and not to liberate Iraq".

Sadr's militia, the Jaish al-Mahdi, had killed too many innocent Sunni civilians, he went on.

Sadr's supporters often claim he is not in control of most of the militants who have a**ucted and murdered Sunni civilians in the spate of tit-for-tat sectarian violence provoked by the bombing of the golden-domed shrine in Samarra last year. The shrine is particularly sacred to Shias.

"He never says they are not under his control, so we have to assume they are, said Omary. "He should denounce them. Every Sunni family in Baghdad has had someone killed by Jaish al-Mahdi. They have destroyed around 300 mosques in Baghdad. If you want us to negotiate with al-Sadr, you have to ask us to negotiate with al-Qaida. We consider al-Qaida is closer to us than Jaish al-Mahdi."

[Dagron]

Unemployment is about 55% in Iraq. When you're starving and someone tells you to plant an IED for 250 bucks, what do you do? Once the New Iraq's economic reforms come to fruition the militias will be a thing of the past.

[eliteforce]

One thing you posted on the other thread about US $ devaluing; this is a sham, after the UN mandate expires the Iraqi puppet regime then wants to replace it with a longterm security cooperation pact with the United States..in other words openended occupation.. the iraqi govt can't control even a section of bagdad and it's many security forces don't respond to it, it's a sham and you can't so easily fix that countries shattered economy .. and theres more to it that economic factors, there is a nationalist drive behind the insurgency.

You folks realize that there is in fact a government in Baghdad, right?



Dec 4, 2007 15:48
Iraqi Cabinet agrees to extend mandate for US-led forces for a year
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
BAGHDAD

The Iraqi Cabinet agreed Tuesday to ask the United Nations to extend the authorization for US-led forces in Iraq through the end of next year, but it will be the last time, officials said.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said last week that his government would ask the UN Security Council for the last time to renew the mandate that has given the United States and its partners sweeping powers in Iraq in the aftermath of the 2003 invasion.

The chief government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said the Cabinet had formally approved that decision.

US Embassy spokesman Philip Reeker welcomed the move.

"This is a very positive process," he said at a news conference. "Iraq is increasingly able to stand on its own but will not have to stand alone."
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satelli...cle%2FShowFull

[Dagron]

Well if I were on the outside looking in as you are I would be saying the exact same thing, but the fact is that the Iraqi government isn't even on speaking terms with the Bush administration right now. Some of the "key legislation" that the Bushies wanted put in were actually written by them (national oil law for example) and the Maliki government dismissed these laws as unfair to the people of Iraq, wrote their own laws, passed them, and are in the midst of enacting them. Go back and take a look at the recent agreements that have been signed by Maliki and our government... the US didn't have Bush, Cheney, or even Condi sign them, no, they sent an assistant ambassador to sign them. If that isn't disrespect, especially in Arab culture, then I don't know WHAT is.

On security: The Maliki government has now repatriated all of their oil fields from Blackwater forces. They are currently butting heads with the Bush administration over whether such forces should even be allowed in country in the first place. The Government of Iraq wants us to keep a moderate contingent of support in country, enough to properly guard the embassy and provide air support, but nothing more. I've already seen a few news reports regarding a so called 'reverse surge' that is expected to take effect in the coming weeks, so I know I am not off base with my intelligence sources here.

The economics and monetary problems in country aren't so simple (I don't really want to get into that) but are being worked on as we speak.

[eliteforce]

So if what your saying is true then the US should be lowering it's troop levels down to under 100,000 and at the same time fireing most of the contractor people..but none of that is happening and instead the US is only going back down to 130,000, the same # of troops they had before the surge took place.

[Dagron]

You're assuming the Bush administration wants a total victory immediately, which isn't the case. They would like to create *some* instability so as to be able to legitimize overthrowing the Maliki government of the sovereign nation of Iraq as they (The Bush administration) is not in favor of how this Maliki government is proceeding, IE, on their own, and not allowing Haliburton, Exxon, etc. to extract and take the profits from them. It's terrible and it's horrible that our military is being used in this way and I don't expect anyone to believe me, but I will tell you that if you search diligently there is enough information to validate my conclusions.

[eliteforce]

um..



yea sure i see what your saying