Word: anbar
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...Bryan Owens, the commander of U.S. forces in Salahuddin province, isn't hoping for the kind of tribal "awakening" seen in neighboring Anbar. In the desert reaches to the north of Owens' command, a number of tribal leaders have gathered themselves and their followers under the banner of Sunni chieftain Sheik Abdul Sittar, who has vowed to work with U.S. forces at crushing insurgents associated with al-Qaeda. The pact has brought some significant successes. The daily average of insurgent attacks in Anbar province has dropped by almost 50% in roughly a year, coming down to about...
...moment to seize. A good chunk of the Sunni insurgency has turned against al-Qaeda in Iraq, the fringe group - it comprises no more than 5% of the insurgency, according to U.S. intelligence estimates - that is responsible for the most spectacular bombings. The anti-Qaeda rebellion began in Anbar, formerly the most dangerous province in the country, an area famously described as "lost" to the terrorists in a Marine intelligence report leaked to the press in 2006. "Actually, the first tentative steps in Anbar were taken in 2005," Petraeus told me over dinner one evening. "The Abu Mahal tribe...
American troops operating in the Samarra area are combing the countryside day by day in a counter-move against an expected influx of insurgent fighters, a shift expected in the wake of U.S. gains made against guerrilla forces in the neighboring provinces of Anbar and Diyala. U.S commanders say up to 80% of the insurgent leaders thought to be in Baqubah, the capital of Diyala province, fled ahead of the ongoing U.S. offensive there. And already signs are emerging that some of the insurgent leaders who've escaped the massive U.S. assault in Diyala have come here...
...Odierno later told me similar anti-al-Qaeda rebellions were happening throughout the country, including some neighborhoods of Baghdad. "Iraqis notice things. They noticed what happened when we began to support the Sunni tribes against al-Qaeda in al-Anbar. And al-Qaeda seems to have overplayed its hand...
...ferocity of his fighting force - and of his own resolve - is not in doubt. Nor is there any question that al-Qaeda is at large in Diyala. The province, northeast of Baghdad, has become the main hideout of jihadi fighters driven out from the Iraqi capital and from Anbar province. U.S. forces there have had almost daily encounters with al-Qaeda amid the orange groves that line the Euphrates valley south of Baqouba...