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Breaking from the NY Times:
U.S. Arming Sunnis in Iraq to Battle Old Qaeda Allies
With the four-month-old increase in American troops showing only modest success in curbing insurgent attacks, American commanders are turning to another strategy that they acknowledge is fraught with risk: arming Sunni Arab groups that have promised to fight militants linked with Al Qaeda who have been their allies in the past.
American commanders say they have successfully tested the strategy in Anbar Province west of Baghdad and have held talks with Sunni groups in at least four areas of central and north-central Iraq where the insurgency has been strong. In some cases, the American commanders say, the Sunni groups are suspected of involvement in past attacks on American troops or of having links to such groups. Some of these groups, they say, have been provided, usually through Iraqi military units allied with the Americans, with arms, ammunition, cash, fuel and supplies.
And it's all been coordinated by 'Warrior-Scholar' David Patreaus...
American field commanders met this month in Baghdad with Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top American commander in Iraq, to discuss the conditions Sunni groups would have to meet to win American assistance. Senior officers who attended the meeting said that General Petraeus and the operational commander who is the second-ranking American officer here, Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, gave cautious approval to field commanders to negotiate with Sunni groups in their areas.
And this news comes out on the heels of the news that one of the Sunni insurgents we've been said to be teaming with have announced a 'cease fire' with al-Qaeda:
An Iraqi militant group said on Wednesday it has reached a ceasefire deal with Iraq's wing of al Qaeda to end clashes between the two Sunni insurgent groups waging a violent campaign against U.S.-led forces in Iraq.
"A deal has been reached between the Islamic Army in Iraq and al Qaeda in Iraq that stipulates an immediate end to all military operation between the two sides in all sectors including capture operation," the Islamist Army in Iraq said in a statement on a Web site used by militants including al Qaeda.
The two groups have exchanged accusations over killings and the Islamic Army in Iraq had accused al Qaeda of seeking to dominate through its self-styled Islamic State in Iraq.
It said the two sides have agreed to form a "judicial committee to look into pending issues between the two sides."
There's been talk for a long time about how many snipers who strike down soldiers have gone through our training. Now we're not only training, but actually arming both sides of a civil war.
There's a long history of U.S. 'negotiations' with insurgents, at least to October of last year. They were reported to have fallen apart last January. But back in October, when the talk was all of 'amnesty' for insurgents, there was a bit of a stunner, too:
The United States reiterated its opposition to an amnesty in Iraq only for insurgents who had killed US soldiers, as Baghdad studies a national reconciliation program.
Tom Casey, a US State Department spokesman, told reporters that Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has said that "some form of amnesty is potentially part of this national reconciliation process."
"We've been supportive of prime minister Maliki's efforts to build on national reconciliation," Casey said.
"We've also made clear, and you've heard us say this before, that as that process moves forward there shouldn't be any distinction made between those people who are responsible for attacks on US or coalition forces and those who've made attacks on Iraqis," he said.
But beyond all that, even with 30,000 new troops just arrived, 300,000 Iraqi Army and Police forces, tens of thousands of 'security contractors' and a potential 200,000 troops in country by the end of the year... the ultimate outrage is we're arming and giving cash and supplies to those who killed Americans in a surge of desperation to save face for Bushco, paid for by a recently delivered blank check.
And if anyone needs a reminder of the implications: 126 dead Americans last month (their stories here), and 31 reported killed so far in the first 9 days of June.
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This diary by Spread the Word: Iraq-Nam, a daily blog on Iraq.
Note: Picture of soldier struck down by a sniper on April 5 in the al Doura area of Baghdad based on photo in the public domain.
UPDATED on Monday, June 11, at 12:00 am with a very big hat tip to commenter Jim P. From the Washington Post:
Tribal Coalition in Anbar Said to Be Crumbling
U.S.-Backed Group Has Fought Al-Qaeda in Iraq
BAGHDAD, June 10 -- A tribal coalition formed to oppose the extremist group al-Qaeda in Iraq, a development that U.S. officials say has reduced violence in Iraq's troubled Anbar province, is beginning to splinter, according to an Anbar tribal leader and a U.S. military official familiar with tribal politics.
In an interview in his Baghdad office, Ali Hatem Ali Suleiman, 35, a leader of the Dulaim confederation, the largest tribal organization in Anbar, said that the Anbar Salvation Council would be dissolved because of growing internal dissatisfaction over its cooperation with U.S. soldiers and the behavior of the council's most prominent member, Abdul Sattar Abu Risha. Suleiman called Abu Risha a "traitor" who "sells his beliefs, his religion and his people for money"...
Lt. Col. Richard D. Welch, a U.S. military official who works closely with the tribal leaders in Iraq, said that relations inside the group were strained and that he expected a complete overhaul of the coalition in coming days.
The article goes on to say they have been 'receiving significant amounts of weapons and vehicles', which is something I've never noticed directly reported before -- it's usually portrayed as citizens' disgust with al-Qaeda.
Now, apparently, those vehicles and arms may be literally headed back our way.