A
Tenuous 'Peace' In Al-Anbar
By
Ali al-Fadhily
30 November,
2007
Inter Press Service
RAMADI,
Iraq, Nov 29 (IPS) - A semblance of calm belies an undercurrent
of violence, detentions and fear across Iraq’s volatile al-Anbar
province.
The province
-- which occupies one-third of Iraq’s geographic area -- has been
a bane to authorities since the beginning of the occupation.
"The
Americans talked about our province as the deadliest enemy, and suddenly
they are marketing us as their best friends," Sa’doon Khalifa,
an independent politician in the capital city of al-Anbar Province,
Ramadi -- 110 km west of Baghdad -- told IPS. "They were lying
to their people and to the world in both cases as we were never terrorists
nor their friends now," he stressed.
Khalifa explained
that resistance fighters in al-Anbar did fight occupation forces, but
now they are standing down from launching new attacks against U.S. forces.
This is due
in large part to U.S. military payments to collaborating tribal sheikhs
-- already totalling over 17 million dollars. The money funds tribal
fighters who are paid 300 dollars per month to patrol their areas, particularly
against foreign fighters.
The military
refers to these men as "Concerned Local Citizens," "Awakening
Force," or simply "volunteers," even though it is well
known that most of them used to carry out attacks against the occupation
forces.
"Those
Americans thought they would decrease the resistance attacks by separating
the people of Iraq into sects and tribes," a 32-year-old man from
Ramadi -- speaking on terms of anonymity -- told IPS, "They know
they are going deeper into the moving sand, but the collaborators are
fooling the Americans right now, and will in the end use this strategy
against them."
As of Wednesday,
the U.S. military counts 77,000 of these fighters. It plans to add another
10,000. Eighty-two percent of the fighters are Sunni.
In spite
of this mass recruitment, sporadic attacks are continuing against U.S.
forces in the province.
"It
is true that hundreds of fighters were killed or detained by the so-called
Awakening Forces, but there are thousands who will never quit fighting
until this occupation is ended," Ali Khamees, a former major of
the Iraqi army told IPS in Ramadi.
Khamees believes
that the de-escalation is a "new technique by the resistance to
reduce the suffering of people in al-Anbar and move somewhere else to
fight."
Attacks against
U.S. forces have increased in other Iraqi provinces -- like Diyala,
Saladin and Mosul.
The U.S.
army reported dozens of soldiers killed throughout November while local
reports insisted that the U.S. casualties are much higher than declared.
A female
suicide bomber wounded seven U.S. soldiers Wednesday in Baquba - - the
capital city of the volatile Diyala province, northeast of Baghdad --
when she detonated her explosive vest near the troops.
On Tuesday
in the same city, another suicide bomber detonated his explosives-filled
vest in front of the police headquarters -- killing six people and wounding
seven, according to Iraqi police.
Underscoring
how tenuous the peace in al-Anbar is, on Nov. 22 a car bomb exploded
in Ramadi, killing at least six people in what was one of the deadliest
attacks there in recent months.
Ramadi police
officials said the bomb exploded near the city’s courthouse in
the late morning detonated by a suicide bomber. At least 30 civilians
were injured, Iraqi police officials said.
"I was
just leaving the bank 80 metres away from the explosion the moment it
took place," Doctor Ahmed Al- Aani told IPS in Ramadi, "I
did not notice any car coming to the spot, so I think it was parked
there. The strange thing was that an American Army convoy passed exactly
thirty seconds after the blast. The thing I found even stranger was
that they passed without any action like closing the area or trying
to help the wounded."
Another two
eyewitnesses told the same story with slight differences in details
like the number of casualties and how many seconds later the U.S. military
convoy passed.
Iraqis across
the province are complaining about harsh tactics being meted out by
the new "Awakening Forces" supported by the U.S.
"We
will behead anyone who carries a gun in this province," Wussam
Hardan, a senior leader of the Awakening Forces in Ramadi told sources
very close to IPS in the city. "No court, no lawyers, no nothing.
We have our own ways to get those criminals to confess," Hardan
said.
The people
of the province fear the recent developments, despite the relative improvement
in the security situation.
"It
is quieter because the Americans stopped many of their activities in
al- Anbar," Shakir Mahmood, a human rights activist in Ramadi told
IPS -- on condition that his false name be used. "There were so
many arrests by U.S. forces, police and the Awakening during the past
month and we cannot even talk about it because we feel threatened by
all three of them," he said.
"So
many of the detainees are well known to be innocent people taken into
custody according to false information by others who have a personal
feud with them or their families," Mahmood added, "It is the
same old story being repeated and God knows what is going to happen
next."
Arrests are
being made after individuals are accused of being al-Qaeda members or
of having links with Iran. Thousands have been detained for a year or
more without any court procedures, while the police and the Awakening
militias have executed many others.
On Nov. 13
the International Committee for the Red Cross estimated that there are
around 60,000 people detained in U.S. and Iraqi prisons in the country.
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