Word: iraqi
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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This new security threat comes as the U.S. military prepares to withdraw its forces from Iraq's cities by June, ahead of a complete withdrawal by the end of 2011. But in many ways, U.S. troop numbers and locations are secondary factors. This is an Iraqi problem, one that stems from festering political rivalries and suspicions among the country's competing centers of power...
There are conflicting reports as to how many Sahwa have been absorbed into the Iraqi security forces. Interior Ministry spokesman Abdul-Karim Khalaf says 13,000 have been trained and placed in local police units. Major General Mike Ferriter, deputy operations commander of the U.S.-led forces, says the police have taken in 5,000 and the army 500. Even so, the figure is clearly not the promised 20%. A recent hiring freeze in the security forces - prompted by budget woes due to the massive drop in oil prices, which account for about 90% of government revenues - has further reduced...
...poverty, broken government promises and feelings of marginalization took hold of the Sunni community, all al-Qaeda and its allies had to do was wait. "The coalition and the Iraqi government told the people that the reason for their poverty was the insurgents. But when the people became Sahwa, their poverty was not alleviated," the insurgent source says. "They realized that their poverty was due to the Americans and the government. That's what's happening in western Baghdad...
...senior Sahwa tribal sheiks are al-Qaeda's "enemy No. 1," according to the source, because as Sunnis, they stood against their co-religionists in the insurgency and sided with a Shi'ite-led government. (The Americans have dropped to fourth on the enemies list, he adds, after Iraqi security forces and all those who work in the government.) Low-level Sahwa members have been encouraged to return to the jihadis' fold. Indeed, in mid-March, the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI), al-Qaeda in Iraq's main front group, posted a communique on several jihadist websites announcing an amnesty...
Although the Iraqi insurgency has been markedly weakened and is a shadow of its former self - with only 13 of the 43 armed groups that once comprised it still actively engaged in violence, and with much dissent among them - it is by no means a spent force. Some groups appear to have heeded the ISI's call for unity. The Islamic State of Iraq and Ansar al-Islam - which worked with Abu Musab al-Zarqawi before the U.S. invasion in 2003 - have quietly formed a new alliance, pooling their intelligence and efforts, according to sources within both the insurgency...