America is cultivating new allies among Iraq's disaffected, reports Saad Abdel-Wahab Both the US military in Iraq and Staffan de Mistura, the UN chief in Iraq, credit the emergence of Awakening Councils with playing a major part in the decline in violence nationwide over the past six months. Such groups, backed by the Americans, have also managed to expel Al-Qaeda from much of Anbar province, a largely desert area in western Iraq. The Awakening Councils are the first Sunni group to publicly turn against Al-Qaeda in Iraq. The Americans' new Sunni allies have increasingly been targeted by Al-Qaeda in Iraq, seeking to derail the movement that began in Anbar and has since spread to Baghdad and surrounding areas. US forces quickly exploited the shift and began sponsoring similar movements in Baghdad and regions to the north and south. An estimated 80,000 members of the so- called Awakening Councils or Concerned Local Citizens are now fighting with, not against US and Iraqi forces. Many of the new allies are on the American payroll, taking home minimal salaries while the US tries, with limited success, to persuade the Al-Maliki government to bring them into the army, police and a civilian corps of workers to rebuild the shattered country. The US-funded groups have recently announced the formation of a political party, aimed at ensuring a strong Sunni presence in the Baghdad area ahead of crucial local elections. Abu Azzam Al-Tamimi, leader of the most influential Awakening Council near the capital, announced the formation of the Iraqi Karama (Dignity) Front last week, saying that the party "would fill the political gap in the country". The provincial law calls for new elections in all of Iraq's provinces, except in the Kurdish region, on 1 October. The newly elected councils will then elect an executive committee and appoint a governor, the top provincial official. The law calls for the provinces to work with the UN on how the elections will operate and whether candidates will be on party lists or appear on the ballot individually. Most importantly, the measure would allow provinces to band together into regional governments that would begin making many decisions that now lie with the authorities in Baghdad . It is widely expected that many of the United States' new Sunni allies in places like Anbar province would hotly contest seats this time around, after sitting out elections in 2005. The Iraqi Karama Front is reported to have close ties with the Islamic Party of Tariq Hashimi, the Iraqi vice-president, who has been pushing for a bigger Sunni representation in future governorate elections. But other Sunni groups, especially the influential Muslim Scholars Association, have accused the members of the councils' militias of being used to weaken "legitimate resistance against the American occupation". Ayman El-Zawahri, Al-Qaeda's No. 2, called in his latest message for Muslim support of jihad in Iraq, and backing of Al-Qaeda's affiliate there, the Islamic State of Iraq. He taunted the Sunni fighters of the Awakening Councils who switched sides and joined the Americans in fighting predominantly Sunni Al-Qaeda militants. "Weren't these Awakenings supposed to hasten the departure of the American forces, or are they in turn in need of someone to protect them," El-Zawahri asked. Al-Qaeda in Iraq fighters have increasingly targeted Awakening Council members, killing around a dozen in shootings and bombings in the past week. A suicide bomber struck the funeral of two anti-Al-Qaeda Sunni tribesmen in a town north of Baghdad on 17 April, killing at least 50 people, police said. The blast was the latest attack in Iraq's Sunni areas after a period of relative calm that was broken this week, raising concerns that Sunni insurgents are reorganising. This attack took place in the town of Abu Mohamed, 90 miles north of Baghdad, during the funeral of two brothers who belonged to the local Awakening Council. The brothers were slain a day earlier, police said. The suicide bomber walked into a tent crowded with mourners in the village and detonated explosives strapped to his body, police in the nearby city of Kirkuk said. The first Sunni clans made cautious overtures to US commanders last year in Anbar province, then the main insurgent staging grounds. As more Sunni tribes joined them, Al-Qaeda and its supporters found their foothold shrinking. A delighted US military kept sweetening the pot for more Sunni allies who felt ignored by the Shia-led government. Al-Qaeda succeeded in assassinating Sheikh Abu Risha, leader of the Anbar Salvation Council, also known as the Anbar Awakening, on 13 September 2007, using a suicide car bomber near his farm in Ramadi city. Now, Sheikh Ahmed Abu Risha has replaced his brother in leading the Awakening Council of Iraq. Al-Qaeda is targeting members of Awakening Councils throughout Iraq, considering them supporters of the American troops, and therefore infidels.
