Remember the Anbar Awakening and the
killing of Abu Reesha:
BAGHDAD (AFP) - Iraqi Sunni sheikh Sattar Abu Reesha, who has been fighting Al-Qaeda since last year, was killed on Thursday in a bomb attack on his convoy in the western city of Ramadi, police said.
One of his bodyguards was also killed in the attack that marked a bloody start to the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
"He was returning home when his convoy was hit by a roadside bomb planted by insurgents," said Anbar security chief Colonel Tareq al-Dulaimi. "His car was hit directly."
Sheikh Reesha was a prominent figure in the so-called Anbar Awakening Conference of Sunni tribes which formed an alliance with American troops in western Anbar province to claw back their neighbourhoods from Al-Qaeda.
That was only the beginning of Bush's actions backfiring.
The other day I posted about the
killing of three journalists, including a WaPo reporter. I missed this (h/t beachmom):
The area where the reporter visited had been dominated by the Mehdi Army, the militia of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, and police believe he was killed by Sunnis aligned with the "Awakening Council" -- the anti-insurgent tribal forces working with the United States, the paper reported.
linkIraqi police officers said they believed Saif Aldin was killed by Sunni men belonging to the nascent organization known as the Awakening Council, a tribal organization aligned with the U.S. military that started in the western province of Anbar and has spread to parts of Baghdad. Iraqi government officials have accused these Sunni tribesmen of abusing their partnership with the Americans to kill and kidnap residents.
link "There is no Anbar model."
"Every contractor in Anbar who works for the U.S. military...is paying the insurgency"