BAGHDAD, Nov. 29, 2007
6,000 Sunnis Join U.S. Fight In Iraq
American Military Touts Pact To Counter Al Qaeda As Largest Volunteer Force Of War
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In this photo released by the U.S Air Force, Sunni tribal leaders sign a security pact in Hawija, 150 miles north of Baghdad, Iraq, Wednesday, Nov. 28, 2007. (AP Photo/US Air Force)
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A U.S. soldier from the 3rd Brigade combat team of 101st Airborne Division casts a shadow onto the road as he directs a Humvee vehicle about 12 miles south of Baghdad, Iraq, Wednesday, Nov. 28, 2007. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)
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The new alliance - called the single largest volunteer mobilization since the war began - covers the "last gateway" for groups such as al Qaeda in Iraq seeking new havens in northern Iraq, U.S. military officials said Wednesday.
U.S. commanders have tried to build a ring around insurgents who fled military offensives launched earlier this year in the western Anbar province and later into Baghdad and surrounding areas. In many places, the U.S.-led battles were given key help from tribal militias - mainly Sunnis - that had turned against al Qaeda and other groups.
Extremists have sought new footholds in northern areas once loyal to Saddam Hussein's Baath party as the U.S.-led gains have mounted across central regions. But their ability to strike near the capital remains.
A woman wearing an explosive-rigged belt blew herself up near an American patrol near Baqouba, about 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, the military announced Wednesday. The blast on Tuesday - a rare attack by a female suicide bomber - wounded seven U.S. troops and five Iraqis, the statement said.
The ceremony to pledge the 6,000 new fighters was presided over by a dozen sheiks - each draped in black robes trimmed with gold braiding - who signed the contract on behalf of tribesmen at a small U.S. outpost in north-central Iraq.
For about $275 a month - nearly the salary for the typical Iraqi policeman - the tribesmen will man about 200 security checkpoints beginning Dec. 7, supplementing hundreds of Iraqi forces already in the area.
About 77,000 Iraqis nationwide, mostly Sunnis, have broken with the insurgents and joined U.S.-backed self-defense groups.
Those groups have played a major role in the lull in violence: 648 Iraqi civilians have been killed or found dead in November to date, according to figures compiled by The Associated Press. This compares with 2,155 in May as the so-called "surge" of nearly 30,000 additional American troops gained momentum.
U.S. troop deaths in Iraq have also dropped sharply. So far this month, the military has reported 35 deaths - including an American soldier killed Wednesday in western Baghdad - compared with 38 in October. In June, 101 U.S. soldiers died in Iraq.
In other developments:
(AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)
Village mayors and others who signed Wednesday's agreement say about 200 militants have sought refuge in the area, about 30 miles southwest of Kirkuk on the edge of northern Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish region. Hawija is a predominantly Sunni Arab cluster of villages which has long been an insurgent flashpoint.
The recently arrived militants have waged a campaign of killing and intimidation to try to establish a new base, said Sheikh Khalaf Ali Issa, mayor of Zaab village.
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Mayor of Zaab village
"They killed 476 of my citizens, and I will not let them continue their killing," Issa said.
They killed 476 of my citizens, and I will not let them continue their killing.
Sheikh Khalaf Ali Issa,Mayor of Zaab village
With the help of the new Sunni allies, "the Hawija area will be an obstacle to militants, rather than a pathway for them," said Maj. Sean Wilson, with the Army's 1st Brigade, 10th Mountain Division. "They're another set of eyes that we needed in this critical area."
By defeating militants in Hawija, U.S. and Iraqi leaders hope to keep them away from Kirkuk, an ethnically diverse city that is also the hub of Iraq's northern oil fields.
"They want to go north into Kirkuk and wreak havoc there, and that's exactly what we're trying to avoid," Army Maj. Gen. Mark P. Hertling, the top U.S. commander in northern Iraq, told The Associated Press this week.
Kurds often consider Kirkuk part of their ancestral homeland and often refer to the city as the "Kurdish Jerusalem." Saddam, however, relocated tens of thousands of pro-regime Arabs to the city in the 1980s and 1990s under his "Arabization" policy.
The Iraqi government has begun resettling some of those Arabs to their home regions, making room for thousands of Kurds who have gradually returned to Kirkuk since Saddam's ouster.
Tension has been rising over the city's status - whether it will join the semi-autonomous Kurdish region or continue being governed by Baghdad.
"Hawija is the gateway through which all our communities - Kurdish, Turkomen and Arab alike - can become unsafe," said Abu Saif al-Jabouri, mayor of al-Multaqa village north of Kirkuk. "Do I love my neighbor in Hawija? That question no longer matters. I must work to help him, because his safety helps me."
© MMVII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Add a Comment See all 41 Comments
- downtowner97 at 10:53 AM : Nov 29: You appear to be ingnorant of standard military policy not to cripple local economies by injecting inflationary wages. Death is cheap.
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- The Sunni''s are very smart. They know they will need protection from the Shiites one of these days. They also know that all they have to say is "al queda" and they can get anything they want from the Americans. They are smarter than the Bush administration; they are making plans for the day when they can make a run at power. But, this story does make good copy to take the focus off Iraq for this presidential campaign.
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- About time people are stepping up to the plate in this part of the world and are willing to work with us..
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- Posted by SgtRDS at 11:00 PM : Nov 29, 2007
+ report abuse
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yes you are an american who hates america..aka liberal - Reply to this comment
- come on LIB, you can admit it, we all know, YOU HATE YOUR PRESIDENT. Go ahead, no need to LIE. Fvckin LIBS have no sense.
Posted by mbcsmith at 01:44 PM : Nov 29, 2007
I''m an American and Bush is not my president. never has been and never will be. I have zero loyalty to him or anything he says. None. - Reply to this comment
- The oval office is the world''''s largest hat and the shrub has an itty-bitty head.
Regards,
Posted by Nancy_Naive at 06:01 AM : Nov 29, 2007
Perfect analogy. Perfect. - Reply to this comment
- Hey ********** - Hillary is going to have to run on her own merits - the war is being won!
You are in denial. - Reply to this comment
- And we trust these "born again freedom fighters" why?? Our boys better watch their backs or our own weapons will be their death. DONT TRUST EM!
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- Actually you have a pathologial hatred for the rich vented through Bush. The easy way to raise your own self esteem is to tear down someone who is better than yourself or berate someone who has accomplished more in one day of their life than you have in your entire life. Once President Bush is gone and Hillary takes over you may suffer from PTSD or something simular. Ask yourself this question, when hillary keeps America engaged in combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan will you give her a pass?
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- Posted by gkc99 at 01:23 PM : Nov 29, 2007
come on LIB, you can admit it, we all know, YOU HATE YOUR PRESIDENT. Go ahead, no need to LIE. Fvckin LIBS have no sense. - Reply to this comment
Author Thomas Friedman on Obama's Afghanistan plan and the war on terror.
