US Faced with Iraqi Army Turncoats
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- Date: 13 Jul 2007 01:15:16 GMT
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US Faced with Iraqi Army Turncoats
Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit
The Christian Science Monitor via yahoo - Jul 10, 2007
http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20070710/ts_csm/oturncoats
US faced with Iraqi Army turncoats
By Sam Dagher
Khalis, Iraq - As the US military continues to move through Diyala
Province to uproot Al Qaeda fighters hidden amid its villages, an
emerging foe may be helping to erode many of the successes the
Americans are having in the three-week-old operation "Arrowhead Ripper."
According to Iraqi soldiers and US officers, militants linked to Al
Qaeda are using tribal and family connections and, in some cases, also
providing financial incentives to members of the Iraqi Army to help
them remain strong and evade capture.
Al Qaeda's position is also bolstered by a broader internecine sectarian
struggle for survival, power, and resources between Sunnis and Shiites
that has spilled into the Army itself. This fight within Iraqi security
services often pits elements of the Army against the Shiite-dominated
police force.
In interviews with Iraqi soldiers from the battalion based in Khalis,
about 10 miles northwest of the provincial capital Baquba, some troops
allege that Sunni and Shiite officers cooperate, respectively, with Al
Qaeda-linked militants and Shiite militias. They say that this ranges
from turning a blind eye to illegal checkpoints to actually
facilitating the transit of weapons, ammunition, and cash through the
checkpoints manned by the Iraqi Army.
A US Army officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the
sensitivity of the matter, goes even further.
"There have been reports of Iraqi Army units transporting weapons for
militias and insurgents in military vehicles," he says, adding that some
officers even receive money from truckers in return for assurances that
the roads on which their convoys travel will be protected.
For example, six Sunni officers in the Iraqi Army battalion in Khalis
hail from the prominent Sunni Arab Obeidi tribe. They are accused by
Shiite officers in the battalion, and even by some fellow Sunni
soldiers, of being on the payroll of fellow Obeidi Khaled Albu-Abali, a
former senior officer in Saddam Hussein's army, who is suspected to
have links to Al Qaeda in Iraq.
"Yes, some Sunnis in our battalion are sympathetic to these elements
because they still cannot accept an Iraq where Shiites have power,"
says Maj. Hussein Kadhim.
In an interview, three of the Sunni officers deny the charges and accuse
some of their Shiite comrades of running death squads and manning
illegal checkpoints in cooperation with the recently formed Khalis
Emergency Response Force (ERF), a mostly Shiite paramilitary group, and
the Khalis Shiite mayor, Uday Adnan, to cleanse the whole area of
Sunnis.
Maj. Wissam Hamid admits, though, that some Sunni villages in Diyala
have sought the protection of Al Qaeda operatives against Shiite
militias and warns that more will do the same if the militias are not
reined in.
These competing interests and allegiances - that often get in the way
of the American mission in Diyala to defeat Al Qaeda forces - were on
full display here last Thursday.
While Iraqi officers were having lunch, Maj. Faisal Majid, a Sunni,
received a call on his cellphone. The person on the other end told him
that a mob, backed by a local paramilitary group, had descended on the
homes of the Albu-Abali Sunni family. The group was about to loot and
set the properties on fire, the caller said.
US Army Maj. Dom Dionne, who is part of the team working with the Iraqi
battalion in Khalis, rushed to the scene. When he arrived with his men,
not a single shop in the area was open. A police pickup truck blocked a
side street where the Albu-Abali homes are located. Members of the ERF,
a Shiite paramilitary group dressed in green camouflage and red berets,
stood on street corners.
Major Dionne was greeted by the ERF leader Col. Hussein Hamham. One of
Colonel Hamham's men showed off a sword that was found in the home of
Khaled Albu-Abali. Many in Khalis say he's now a senior leader in the
Islamic State in Iraq - an Al Qaeda umbrella group - who goes by the
pseudonym Abu Walid al-Shami.
"They used this to kill Shiites," says the policeman.
Hamham assures Dionne that his men had simply gone into the homes for a
routine search. The next day, all six homes were looted and set on fire.
Iraqi security forces did little to stop it.
Dionne suspects it was the work of the Mahdi Army militia of radical
Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in retaliation for attacks on the homes
of Shiites east of Khalis a few days before.
There is no proof that Albu-Abali is a member of Al Qaeda, says Dionne,
but the episode is just one of many examples of the sectarian disputes
involving Iraqi security forces that the US Army often finds itself
having to navigate.
"The military goes through a vetting process to ensure that the
soldiers are not known criminals or insurgents, but there is no process
after that to screen them periodically to make sure they have not
turned or started supporting criminals and terrorists," says Dionne.He
says that is the responsibility of the sovereign Iraqi government and
not the US Army. "With our current manning, it's not feasible," he adds.
Furthermore, the US military cannot put too much pressure on Sunni
tribes in Diyala because, according to the Arrowhead Ripper commander,
Gen. Mick Bednarek, it needs them to renounce Al Qaeda, provide
intelligence, and encourage their sons to join the police and Army.
*
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