the Anbar Salvation Council is publicly pointing the finger at the Maliki for death of Abu Risha

[rodeodance]

http://abuaardvark.typepad.com/abuaardvark/2007/09/abu-risha-murde.html


UPDATE: Nobody has yet claimed responsibility for the assassination. According to an Iraqi blogger, Abu Risha's tribal rival Ali Hatem Sulayman blamed al-Qaeda for the assassination during an al-Arabiya interview (I didn't see it). The insurgency's forums are joyous, with "Allahu Akbars" everywhere. Virtually every story, whether in sympathetic or hostile Iraqi outlets, features the same pictures of Abu Risha with Bush. The al-Boraq forum, which runs statements from all factions but is currently hosted on the server of the Islamic Army of Iraq, features a post which praises God for the killing: "the mujahideen promised and they delivered." One posting on the al-Falojah forum asks "what has happened to us Iraqis, that we celebrate the killing of one of our brothers?" - but receives little sympathy in the comments which follow.

The most telling reaction: the Anbar Salvation Council itself is publicly pointing the finger at the Maliki government. So much for "bottom-up reconciliation": the first instinct of America's chosen Sunni interlocutors, and the core of "bottom up reconciliation", is to blame the Shia-led national government for the murder of their leader.