Insurgent groups splitting from Qaeda

"An Iraqi militant group has highlighted the split in the ranks of the Iraqi insurgency by having its spokesman give a television interview in which he accuses al-Qaida and its umbrella organization of killing its members and pursuing the wrong policies.
"The gap has widened and the injustices committed by some brothers in al-Qaida have increased," Ibrahim al-Shimmari told Al-Jazeera television in an interview broadcast Wednesday and repeated Thursday.
. . . Al-Shimmari is the spokesman for the Islamic Army in Iraq, a Sunni militant group that first aired its grievances against al-Qaida and umbrella Islamic State of Iraq on its Web site last week.
. . . He accused al-Qaida of killing 30 members of the Islamic Army, and said the Islamic State of Iraq's claim to constitute a state was both inaccurate and incorrect policy.
. . . He was more critical of Iranian influence in Iraq than American, apparently out of opposition to the growing power of Iraq's Shiite majority, a trend that Shiite-dominant Iran supports." [1]

"Key Sunni militant groups are severing their association with al-Qaeda in Iraq.
. . . The Sunni insurgency in Iraq has long been fractious, in part because secular nationalists [and others] . . . have rejected al-Qaeda's tactics, particularly beheadings.
'They have realized that those people are not working for Iraq's interests,' said Alaa Makki, a Sunni member of parliament with close ties to the insurgents.
. . . Insurgent leaders . . . offered different explanations for their split. Many said their link to the al-Qaeda groups was tainting their image as a nationalist resistance force. Others said they no longer wanted to be tools of the foreign fighters who lead al-Qaeda. Their war, they insist, is against only the U.S. forces, to pressure them to depart Iraq.
. . . About three months ago, al-Qaeda fighters began targeting insurgent leaders.
. . . The Sunni groups are also divided over entering the political process, said Makki.
. . . 'If they maintain their independence from each other and each one has its different strategy, there will be chaos on the ground and chaos at the [negotiating] table,' said Tariq al-Hashimi, the Sunni vice president and leader of the Iraqi Islamic Party." [2]

sources
[1] Keath, Lee. (The Associated Press). Group Notes Split Among Iraq Insurgents. April 12, 2007.
[2] Raghavan, Sudarsan. (The Washington Post). Sunni Factions Split With Al-Qaeda Group. April 14, 2007.

posted: sunday, april 15, 2007, 3:28 PM ET

tags: iraq al qaeda islamic army in iraq

Maliki on withdrawal / Sadr says US provocateur

"Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said Tuesday that he saw no need to set a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from his country.
His comments came a day after tens of thousands of Iraqis took to the streets of two Shiite holy cities, demanding that U.S. forces leave the country. The rally, called by rebel cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, marked the fourth anniversary of the fall of Baghdad.
We see no need for a withdrawal timetable. We are working as fast as we can," al-Maliki told reporters while on a four-day trip to Japan. 'To demand the departure of the troops is a democratic right and a right we respect. What governs the departure at the end of the day is how confident we are in the handover process.'
. . . Al-Maliki's visit to Japan came two weeks after Iraqi Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi was in Tokyo and said U.S.-led coalition forces should not be withdrawn until Iraq's army is fully trained and ready to take over security." [1]

"Calling the United States the 'great evil,' radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr on Sunday accused U.S. forces of dividing Iraq by stoking violence. He also urged his Mahdi Army militiamen and Iraqi security forces to stop fighting each other in Diwaniyah, a southern city where clashes erupted late last week.
. . . Sadr, a fierce nationalist who has long called for a U.S. withdrawal, stopped short of telling his fighters to rise up against the American troops, a move that would severely complicate an ongoing security offensive underway in Iraq.
. . . 'My brothers in the Mahdi Army, and my brothers in the security services: enough fighting and rivalry, because that is only a success for our, and your, enemy,' Sadr said in a statement brimming with emotion and passages from the Koran. 'Infighting between brothers is not right, nor is it right to follow the dirty American sedition, or to defend . . . the occupier.'
Sadr said the 'enemy' wants 'to draw you into a war to end Shiism, or rather Islam,' and he urged Iraq's army and police to remain independent of U.S. forces and to avoid being 'drawn after the occupier, because he is your stark enemy.' [2]


source
[1] Talmadge, Eric. (The Associated Press). Iraqi PM: No Timetable on U.S. Pullout. April 10, 2007.
[2] Raghavan, Sudarsan. (The Washington Post). Sadr Blames 'Evil' U.S. for Violence. April 9, 2007.

posted: sunday, april 15, 2007, 1:58 PM ET

tags: iraq withdrawal

Insurgents should be part of government, Sunni VP says

"Sunni insurgents who are 'honorable and genuine' must be given the chance to join the political process, Iraq's Sunni vice president said in an interview published Friday.
Tariq al-Hashemi told the Arabic language daily Al-Hayat that U.S. and Iraqi representatives must negotiate 'with the participation of the resistance' after 'America has failed to run the country.'
Furthermore, al-Hashemi said 'the honorable national resistance' must adopt 'a new ideology to manage the crisis.'
. . . He also criticized the militant Sunni Association of Muslim Scholars, accusing it of meddling in politics and rejecting the notion it represents Iraq's Sunni Arabs. Many Association figures are believed closely linked to insurgents.
His criticism drew a sharp response from the association's spokesman, Sheik Mohammed Bashar al-Fayadh, who told Al-Arabiyah television that al-Hashemi's comments amounted to an attempt to separate religion from politics. 'This is a secularist ideology, not Islamic,' he said."

source
The Associated Press. Key Sunni Official Urges Participation. February 16, 2007.

posted: tuesday, february 20, 2007, 4:44 AM ET
update: tuesday, february 20, 2007, 4:45 AM ET

tags: iraq insurgency sunni

U.S. trying to form coalition of political parties to oppose Sadr, say Iraqi officials

"After discussions with the Bush administration, several of Iraq’s major political parties are in talks to form a coalition whose aim is to break the powerful influence of the radical Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr within the government, senior Iraqi officials say.
The talks are taking place among the two main Kurdish groups, the most influential Sunni Arab party and an Iranian-backed Shiite party that has long sought to lead the government. They have invited Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki to join them. But Mr. Maliki, a conservative Shiite who has close ties to Mr. Sadr, has held back for fear that the parties might be seeking to oust him, a Shiite legislator close to Mr. Maliki said.
. . . President Bush met last week in the White House with Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, the leader of the Iranian-backed Shiite party, and is to meet on Tuesday with Tariq al-Hashemi, leader of the Sunni Arab party.
. . . If he [Sadr] thinks he is being marginalized within the government, he could ignite another rebellion like the two he led in 2004.
. . . Iraqi officials say that the other main risk is a potential backlash against the parties involved in the talks from other leaders in their own ethnic or sectarian populations." [1]

source
[1] The New York Times. Iraqis Consider Ways to Reduce Power of Cleric. December 12, 2006.

posting: thrusday, december 14, 2006, 4:44 PM ET
update: thrusday, december 14, 2006, 5:18 PM ET