Word: iraqi
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...Iraq Returning Anbar to The Iraqis On Sept. 1, U.S. military commanders handed over control of Anbar province to Iraqi forces, a major sign of progress in a region that has claimed the lives of more than 1,000 U.S. soldiers since the war began. The move puts 11 of the nation's 18 provinces under Iraqi control. Yet the transition of Anbar, once a stronghold of al-Qaeda and the heartland of Iraq's Sunni insurgency, also underscores the changed nature of the U.S. role in Iraq. Though President Bush roundly rejected nation-building when he took office eight...
Only a handful of the 40 or so Awakening leaders attended the ceremony in Ramadi, a snub that Sheikh Natah says was intended as a clear message to the government. At heart is a power struggle between the Awakening council and the Iraqi Islamic Party, made up of Sunni exiles who are allied with the Shi'ite prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki. The party holds 36 of the Anbar council's 41 seats. Those posts are up for grabs if a slow-moving electoral law is approved by Iraq's bickering parliamentarians and the provincial elections that were slated...
...Dulaimi, reinstated to the position he was ousted from just a few days ago. (Dulaimi was removed for unspecified "administrative" reasons.) The Awakening members say Dulaimi's sudden removal, which was approved by the Interior Ministry, has cemented their fears that their local Sunni rivals in the Iraqi Islamic Party are maneuvering to gain control of Anbar's 28,000-strong police force and purge it of tribal loyalists...
...Iraqi Islamic Party dismisses the sheikhs' concerns. "Some people make accusations without solid evidence," says Omar Abdul-Sattar, a parliamentarian and the Islamic Party spokesman. Abdul-Sattar says that the decision to remove Dulaimi was a done deal between all of the various factions in Anbar, including the tribes, as well as the central government. "This is old talk, Tareq al A'sal has been replaced by consensus," he says...
...removal as part of a wider government crackdown against the Awakening Council and the Sons of Iraq, the 100,000-strong, largely Sunni former militiamen who are each paid a monthly stipend of $300 by the U.S. to help keep the peace. In the past few weeks, the Iraqi army has moved against the groups in Diyala province, detaining several leaders, and disarming and dismantling several of their checkpoints. There are reportedly plans to detain hundreds of Sons of Iraq members in the coming weeks...