Article

2007-06-01 Iraq

Sunni Insurgents Battle in Baghdad [Against al Qaeda In Iraq]

Archived material is restricted to Rantburg regulars and members. If you need access email fred.pruitt=at=gmail.com with your nick to be added to the members list. There is no charge to join Rantburg as a member.

Posted by mrp 2007-06-01 09:03|| || Front Page|| [5 views ] Top

#1 ummm...
go, go Sunni!
go, go other Sunni!

Ima channel our resident Israeli cynic but I repeats myself

Posted by Shipman">Shipman 2007-06-01 10:50|| 2007-06-01 10:50|| Front Page Top

#2 "But if the Americans interfere, it will blow up, because they are the enemy of us both, and we will unite against them and stop fighting each other," he said.
No worries, Khaliq-dude. We're on the sidelines 5x5, with plenty of popcorn. When yer all done bleeding yerselves white, we'll take er from there.

Posted by Rex Mundi 2007-06-01 11:14|| 2007-06-01 11:14|| Front Page Top

#3 We're on the sidelines 5x5

That sounds like an obscure football reference to me, Rex Mundi dear. Would you be so kind as to translate for the popular culturally illiterate? Thanks!

Posted by trailing wife 2007-06-01 13:23|| 2007-06-01 13:23|| Front Page Top

#4 Does arming-up the losing side count as interference?

Posted by gorb 2007-06-01 13:31|| 2007-06-01 13:31|| Front Page Top

#5 Heyas TW. I first heard this as a lad watching Aliens...it's slang for "all is well" or "well and good". Urban Dictionary points to aeronautical term for radio signals in terms of clarity and strenth measured in scales of 1 to 5..with 5 being the strongest measure. And yes...sidelines is the football reference. Football, popcorn, and red-on-red...it's gonna be a good day.

Posted by Rex Mundi 2007-06-01 13:54|| 2007-06-01 13:54|| Front Page Top

#6 Iraq the Model offers his thoughts:

Red on Red in Amiriyah

Fighting in a western Baghdad district between two insurgent groups continued for the 2nd day, eye witnesses told ITM.

The clashes erupted yesterday around noon between two groups of insurgents that are competing for control in the Amiriya district, one of Baghdad's most violent and lawless districts.

The two groups, teams actually, were later identified; on one side there's al-Qaeda and the Islamic state in Iraq and on the other there's the Islamic army and 'Jaish al-Mujahideen' (The brigades of the 1920 revolution in another account), the latter are know to be largely military and intelligence officers of the former regime as well as members of the Baath Party.

"I saw seven or eight bodies of militants who were killed in the clashes lying on the ground" one eyewitness said this morning. This was before the fighting resumed after a short pause.

Sot al-Iraq reports that machineguns, RPG's and mortars were used in the clashes and that masked men, believed to be reinforcements for al-Qaeda began pouring into the district.

Islamic extremists like al-Qaeda often clash with the pan-nationalist, less Islamic elements of insurgent groups which are largely made up former military officers and Baathists, so this is not the first time that such clashes occur in Amiriyah or Adhamiyah where both groups have strong presence but this time the clashes are fiercer and lasted longer than any previous incident.

AP has a quite different story though:

A battle raged in west Baghdad on Thursday after residents rose up against al-Qaida and called for U.S. military help to end random gunfire that forced people to huddle indoors and threats that kept students from final exams, a member of the district council said.

While I so much wish this was true, the information I received from inside Amiriyah says that the fighting was mostly between the two groups mentioned above and the intervention by the American troops was only a routine response to the spike in violence.

Either way, al-Qaeda is under pressure on more than one front and it has lost a bunch of its commanders and fighters and this is always good news.

One correction to the AP story, Hajj Hameed was the chief of the Sharia courts of al-Qaeda in Amiriyah, not the leader of the network. Only god knows how many innocent people were executed by orders from this terrorist. Whether killed by Baathists, fellow terrorists, good Iraqis or American troops. Good riddance!

Posted by trailing wife 2007-06-01 14:05|| 2007-06-01 14:05|| Front Page Top

#7 Sorry. ItM link

Posted by trailing wife 2007-06-01 14:06|| 2007-06-01 14:06|| Front Page Top

#8 Sounds more like purple-on-red: bad guys who are coming over to our side (or might be tempted to do so if they can get the same deal Robert E. Lee got at Appomattox) battling the other bad guys who aren't.

I love this part:

an armed group scrawled graffiti on a school wall reading: "Down with al-Qaeda, long live the honest resistance." When al-Qaeda in Iraq members came to wipe away the writing, a roadside bomb exploded nearby, killing three of them

Posted by Mike 2007-06-01 14:17|| 2007-06-01 14:17|| Front Page Top

#9 Abdul Khaliq said he hoped U.S. forces would stay out of the fight. "But if the Americans interfere, it will blow up, because they are the enemy of us both, and we will unite against them and stop fighting each other," he said.

This comment is a tell that this article is infiltrated with propaganda. At the very least it represents the clueless, inaccurate type of reporting that we have become accustomed to.

Nobody EVER resists help killing their enemies. The enemy of my enemy is a constant rule of warfighting - secondary only to divide and conquer.

One can just picture ol' Abdul Kahliq making himself available to the reporter for that quote. And the gullible reporter swallowed it hook, line and sinker because he knew his editor would love it. I think you have to be void of common sense to work for these papers.

Posted by Angaiger Tojo1904 2007-06-01 14:26|| 2007-06-01 14:26|| Front Page Top

#10 Abdul Khaliq said he hoped U.S. forces would stay out of the fight. "But if the Americans interfere, it will blow up, because they are the enemy of us both, and we will unite against them and stop fighting each other," he said.

Speaking for myself, jackass, it's no skin off my back if you end up with your throat slit so I'd be all too happy to leave you to the tender mercies of Moqtada al Sadr and his Iranian puppet masters if only Bush could see his way clear to bomb the crap out of Iran first. But you really should be careful what you ask for.

Posted by Ebbang Uluque6305 2007-06-01 14:37|| 2007-06-01 14:37|| Front Page Top

#11 ummm...
go, go Sunni!
go, go other Sunni!

Ima channel our resident Israeli cynic but I repeats myself

LOL! stop it! Ima laughing to much..but I repeat myself! lol

Posted by RD">RD 2007-06-01 15:18|| 2007-06-01 15:18|| Front Page Top

#12 less Islamic elements

Once again, the old "more Islamic than thou" crapulence. This is and will be the death of Islam if they somehow manage to avoid nuclear annihilation. Still more ~~strange~~ fitting is how they may even be the source of their own nuclear holocaust. Should the West prove too squeamish to accommodate Islam's lust for neutron bombardment they will most certainly provide it for themselves. There is no force on earth sufficiently powerful to restrain Islam from its own self-destruction. All that remains to be seen is whether Western culture will pre-empt all further mayhem and do them the favor beforehand.

Posted by Zenster">Zenster 2007-06-01 15:32|| 2007-06-01 15:32|| Front Page Top

#13 Zenster. I love your pessimistic optimism.

Posted by Captain Lewis 2007-06-01 18:02|| 2007-06-01 18:02|| Front Page Top

#14 Slightly OT, but with a hattip to GatewayPundit: http://gatewaypundit.blogspot.com/2007/06/peshmerga-women-steal-show-at-iraqi.html
Some VERY bad-ass women! follow the link within the article labeled: "The Infamous Peshmerga Women". Good read!!

Posted by Justrand 2007-06-01 18:20|| 2007-06-01 18:20|| Front Page Top

#15 Very cool, indeed, Justrand. Thanks! And very good news that with the hand-over to the Kurds, one third of Iraq is now completely self-governing, if I read the article correctly.

Posted by trailing wife 2007-06-01 20:18|| 2007-06-01 20:18|| Front Page Top

#16 an armed group scrawled graffiti on a school wall reading: "Down with al-Qaeda, long live the honest resistance." When al-Qaeda in Iraq members came to wipe away the writing, a roadside bomb exploded nearby, killing three of them

O I love it, a booby trap nets three boobies

(perhaps a lexicon change is in order, "A stupid trap" rings better than "Booby Trap", I tend to think of "boobies in bras" when I hear that.)

Posted by Redneck Jim 2007-06-01 23:34|| 2007-06-01 23:34|| Front Page Top

23:56 Phineter Thraviger1073
23:55 FOTSGreg
23:49 Zenster
23:47 FOTSGreg
23:45 Mike N.
23:39 FOTSGreg
23:39 Redneck Jim
23:38 Zenster
23:38 ex-lib
23:34 Redneck Jim
23:32 Zenster
23:24 Zenster
23:21 DarthVader
23:19 DarthVader
23:14 Redneck Jim
23:10 Zenster
23:09 Zhang Fei
23:07 Zenster
23:05 anonymous2u
23:05 trailing wife
23:03 Sherry
22:51 Rob Crawford
22:50 Mike N.
22:49 Captain America