Report: Pro-U.S. Tribal Coalition in Anbar Said to Be Crumbling

Above: Iraqi police officers undergo training at Camp Hero in Ramadi, capital of Anbar province, in May. Left: Sheikh Abdel Sittar Baziya (sometimes known as Sheikh Abu Risha), is head of the Abu Risha tribe and a founder of the movement Sahawat Al Anbar, or Awakening Council, an alliance pledged to fighting al-Qaeda in Al Anbar province. He has been heavily touted by the U.S. as an example of the turning tide in Anbar province.

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.

Read the rest at the Washington Post

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