Leader: Iraqi Tribes Fight Insurgency by Sinan Salaheddin.

Tribes in one of Iraq's most volatile provinces have joined together to fight the insurgency there, and they have called on the government and the U.S.-led military coalition for weapons, a prominent tribal leader said Monday.

Tribal leaders and clerics in Ramadi, the capital of violent Anbar province, met last week and have set up a force of about 20,000 men "ready to purge the city of these infidels," Sheik Fassal al-Guood, a prominent tribal leader from Ramadi, told The Associated Press, referring to the insurgents.

"People are fed up with the acts of those criminals who take Islam as a cover for their crimes," he said. "The situation in the province is unbearable, the city is abandoned, most of the families have fled the city and all services are poor."

Al-Guood said 15 of the 18 tribes in Ramadi "have sworn to fight those who are killing Sunnis and Shiites and they established an armed force of about 20,000 young men ready to purge the city from those infidels."

He said they had asked the Iraqi government and the U.S.-led coalition "to back them with modern weapons and cars because the terrorists have weapons more modern than their rifles."...
Of course, the request for "modern weapons" begs the question - as the sands shift down the road will we be facing those modern weapons in the conduct of COIN operations?