IRAQ: Sunni sheikhs say they are building a force of 30,000 to fight al-Qaeda, writes Michael Jansen
This week's encounter between Sunni tribal leaders from Iraq's largest and most restive province and the prime minister, Nuri al-Maliki, has been hailed as a breakthrough by Baghdad and Washington.
The sheikhs, representing 26 of Anbar's 31 tribal groupings, say they are building a force of 30,000 men to fight al-Qaeda, patrol roads and highways and assume policing duties.
This is not a new development. These tribesmen, commanders and foot soldiers of the Iraqi insurgency have partially filled the security vacuum in Anbar where they have been fighting al-Qaeda for more than a year.
Tribesmen broke away from al-Qaeda when it called on Sunnis to boycott the October constitutional referendum and December parliamentary poll. Since then tribal levies captured 270 foreign fighters and killed six al-Qaeda leaders. Tribal sheikhs may now be ready for greater co-operation because of the deteriorating security situation in Anbar and Baghdad because of the Shia death squads that have killed thousands of Sunni civilians.
What is new is that the sheikhs have renewed an offer to provide recruits for the Iraqi police and army which have a majority of Shia members, many of whom belong to Shia militias. Some participate in death squads connected to the ministry of the interior. The Sunni tribal chiefs apparently want to form Sunni police and army units that can take over from Shia and Kurdish formations deployed in Sunni Arab areas.
Sunnis are particularly worried about the al-Mahdi army, the mass militia formed by radical Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in 2003, which fractured into loyalist factions and a number of death squads and criminal gangs after al-Qaeda bombed the Shia shrine at Samarra last February. Many militiamen deserted when Mr Sadr halted armed resistance and joined the government.
Sunni tribal sheikhs made a similar proposal last winter but were rebuffed by the US military. However, due to rising sectarian violence and growing Iraqi opposition to the presence of foreign forces, Mr Maliki might be persuaded to accept.
A recent poll conducted by the University of Maryland revealed 71 per cent of Iraqis want US forces to leave within a year. The sectarian breakdown shows that 74 per cent of Shias, Mr Maliki's constituency, and 91 per cent of Sunnis favour withdrawal, while only 35 per cent of Kurds do. Most worryingly, support for attacks against US forces has reached 61 per cent, with approval from 62 per cent of Shias, 92 per cent of Sunnis, and 15 per cent of Kurds.
If Mr Maliki does agree, Sunni officers may insist on being based in Sunni provinces. This would be a dangerous proposition that might contribute to the break-up of Iraq.
The north is controlled by Kurdish nationalists, the south by Shia fundamentalists who seek autonomy, and Dyala province by a Taliban-style Sunni regime. Anbar might follow suit.