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| Iraq-Jordan |
| US bombing aimed at supporting pro-government Sunni tribe |
| 2005-08-31 |
| U.S. forces said they had killed a known al Qaeda militant in western Iraq on Tuesday in air strikes which a hospital official said had killed 47 people. U.S. warplanes launched three waves of strikes near the town of Qaim, on the Syrian border, in a remote area Washington has long said is a route into Iraq for foreign Islamist fighters allied to the insurgency among Iraq's Sunni Arab minority. "Intelligence leads Coalition forces to believe that Abu Islam and several of his associates were killed in the air strike," a U.S. military spokeswoman said in Baghdad. A hospital official in Qaim, Mohammed al-Aani, told Reuters 35 people had died in a strike on one house and 12 in a second house. It was not immediately clear how many of the 47 might have been militants. The U.S. military said in a statement it had carried out three separate strikes, initially dropping four bombs on a house in Qusayba, near Qaim, referred to by the military as Husayba. "At approximately 6:20 a.m. (0220 GMT), two bombs were dropped on a second house in Husayba, occupied by Abu Islam, a known terrorist," the statement said. "Islam and several other suspected terrorists were killed in that attack." Some of his associates then drove around six km (four miles) to a house in Karabila, a military spokeswoman said. "Around 8:30 a.m., a strike was conducted on the house in Karabila using two precision-guided bombs. Several terrorists were killed in the strike but exact numbers are not known." Abu Islam is an alias used by several Islamist militants. U.S. spokesmen had no further information on his identity. U.S. Marines have launched several ground offensives against insurgents in the area in the past four months, but residents and local officials say Islamist insurgents remain a significant force in several towns along the Euphrates river. The region is home to two Sunni Arab tribes, one loyal to al Qaeda and one to the Iraqi government. They clashed on Saturday, killing at least 20 people and wounding scores, clerics and hospital officials in the town said. U.S. and Iraqi forces are battling a Sunni Arab insurgency against the Shi'ite and Kurdish-led government in Baghdad. The three Iraqi groups have been wrangling over the draft constitution, which has proved highly divisive in recent weeks, and one top Sunni political leader, Adnan Dulaimi, said it did not meet the aspirations of the Iraqi people and he would work hard for its rejection. "We will do our best to make sure this draft fails at the referendum," he told a news conference with the U.S. ambassador, referring to a nationwide vote on the text due by Oct. 15. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, who has been active in brokering the constitution presented to parliament on Sunday, said two days ago that some Sunni leaders were reluctant to back the draft in public because of intimidation. Iraq's southern Shi'ite Muslims and northern Kurds broadly support the text, while the minority Sunni Arabs -- from among whom Saddam Hussein drew his support -- are broadly opposed. One of Iraq's biggest Arab Sunni parties said on Monday it might back the constitution, but it urged changes to the text accepted by the Shi'ite-dominated parliament on Sunday. In a speech in San Diego, Bush said a pullout would let al Qaeda take hold of Iraq's oilfields to fund new attacks and would damage America's credibility. "This is the choice we face: Do we return to the pre-Sept. 11 mind-set of isolation and retreat? Or do we continue to take the fight to the enemy and support our allies in the broader Middle East?" Bush said. "I've made my decision. We will stay on the offensive. We will stand with the people of Iraq and we will prevail." |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #1 The region is home to two Sunni Arab tribes, one loyal to al Qaeda and one to the Iraqi government. To end a tribal insurgency you turn one tribe against another. Any actively cooperating tribe gets all the money, perks, and benefits. Fence sitters get left alone, but no benefits. Any anti-government tribe gets a 500 pounder dropped on the house of each leader or clan head. |
| Posted by: Phinesing Jereck8420 2005-08-31 10:49 |