Insurgents Report a Split with Al Qaeda in Iraq
27 March LA Times - Insurgents Report a Split with Al Qaeda in Iraq by Ned Parker.
Quote:
Insurgent leaders and Sunni Arab politicians say divisions between insurgent groups and Al Qaeda in Iraq have widened and have led to combat in some areas of the country, a schism that U.S. officials hope to exploit.
The Sunni Arab insurgent leaders said they disagreed with the leadership of Al Qaeda in Iraq over tactics, including attacks on civilians, as well as over command of the movement.
U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, on his last day in Iraq, said Monday that American officials were actively pursuing negotiations with the Sunni factions in an effort to further isolate Al Qaeda.
"Iraqis are uniting against Al Qaeda," Khalilzad said. "Coalition commanders have been able to engage some insurgents to explore ways to collaborate in fighting the terrorists."
Insurgent leaders from two of the prominent groups fighting U.S. troops said the divisions between their forces and Al Qaeda were serious. They have led to skirmishes in Al Anbar province, in western Iraq, and have stopped short of combat in Diyala, east of Baghdad, they said in interviews with the Los Angeles Times...
Iraqi rebel leader killed in attack, al Qaeda blamed
Quote:
A military leader of one of Iraq's biggest Sunni Arab insurgent groups, the 1920 Revolution Brigades, was killed on Tuesday in a bomb attack west of Baghdad, the group said in an Internet statement.
The group identified the leader as Harith al-Dari, who is also the son of an anti-al Qaeda tribal leader. The Brigades is believed to have given tacit backing to a group of Sunni Arab tribes who have formed an alliance against al Qaeda in volatile western Anbar province.
Dari's relatives blamed the attack on the hardline Sunni Islamist group, which has come into conflict with some tribes because of its adherence to a radical form of Sunni Islam and indiscriminate killings.
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http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/YAT764068.htm
Gunmen in Iraq Kill Tribal Opponent of Al Qaeda
Quote:
Attackers killed a prominent member of an Iraqi tribe that had taken a stand against Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, and in other violence today more than 10 people were killed in gunfire and bomb attacks, including a suicide blast at a bus stop west of Baghdad, Iraqi authorities said.
Gunmen attacked a car carrying Harith Thahir Khamees al-Dari and fired a rocket-propelled grenade, killing him and wounding his driver, in Abu Ghraib, the authorities said.
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“There is a real struggle going on in the Sunni Arab part of Iraq between those of Al Qaeda and the other more patriotic groups who want a successful Iraq, an Iraq in which everyone’s rights is respected,” Mr. Khalilzad said Monday. Most of these “patriotic groups” were linked to Mr. Hussein’s former government rather than to the Sunni religious militants with ties to Al Qaeda.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/27/wo...d-iraq.html?hp
