Iraqi awakening councils final countdown?

Will operation destroy the Awakening Councils is active on the ground ? this is not an exaggeration, but rather a fact that is embodied by what is happening on the ground in Iraq today.

The Awakening Councils have become an easy target for the Al Qaeda organization and other militias, in addition to being targeted by the Iraqi government.
Tariq Alhomayed in alsharq alawsat newspaper wrote “Who killed the Brave Sheikh?” which was published on 15 September 2007 following the assassination of Sheik Abdul Sattar Abu Risha [former leader of the Anbar Awakening Council]. This assassination took place following Abu Risha’s famous meeting with former President George Bush during the former President’s visit to Iraq in which he met with Abu Risha alone, unaccompanied by any other Iraqi leaders. And so the Awakening Councils [in Iraq] have been continuously targeted. ,this week Tariq Alhomayed discussed in his article( Witnessing the Betrayal of the Awakening Council alsharq alawsat news paper 13/04/2009 ) that we are witnessing a systematic targeting of the Awakening Councils and its leadership, from assassinations to arrests. The most recent example of this [targeting] was uncovered by “The New York Times” which revealed that Sheik Maher Sarhan Abbas – an Awakening Council leader- has been secretly detained for nearly 29 days. According to his family, the security officers who arrested him informed them that the arrest was ordered by the Prime Minister’s office.
Awakening movements in Iraq are coalitions between tribal Sheikhs in a particular province in Iraq that unite to maintain security. The movement started among Sunni tribes in Anbar Province in 2005 to become an ad-hoc armed force across the country in less than a year
The awakening fighters in Iraq have been credited by some analysts with reducing levels of violence in the areas in which they operate; however, the rapid growth of the groups, whose salaries were initially paid for completely by the US military, has also led to concerns about some members’ insurgent pasts fighting against coalition forces and to concerns about infiltration by al-Qaeda. Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has warned the US-armed ‘concerned local citizens’ are an armed Sunni opposition in the making, and has argued that such groups should be under the command of the Iraqi Army or police.
The Iraqi Defense Ministry has said that it plans to disband the Sunni Awakening groups so they do not become a separate military force. The Iraqi government plans to absorb approximately a quarter of the Awakening groups into security service or the military, but analysts fear what will happen to the remaining three-quarters. The US is urging the Iraqi government to rapidly integrate the fighters into the national security forces. Some experts warn there are similarities between the awakening councils and armed groups in past conflicts that were used for short-term military gains but ended up being roadblocks for state building. In 2009, some awakening groups threatened to set the streets ablaze and “start a tribal war” after not doing well in elections.
some Sunni fighters were promised they would be integrated into Iraq’s security forces. Others were told they would receive monthly payments of about $300 from Iraq’s Shi’a-led government — at least until they were reintegrated into civilian life and found other jobs.
But already, Iraq’s Shi’a-dominated government is two or three months behind on many of those payments.
“The Americans used to give them fixed salaries at regular intervals. They had an understanding that they would be incorporated into the [Iraqi] army, police or even in the intelligence service,” Falih Abdul Jabbar, a sociologist and director of the Iraqi Studies Institute in Beirut, told RFE/RL. “The Iraqi government is more sensitive to the issue of reincorporation, and they are using these delays in payment as a kind of pressure tool, really, to bring those elements and groups under their control.”
In an interview last month with Radio Free Iraq, Tahsin al-Sheikhly, a spokesman for Iraqi government security forces, denied that there were serious conflicts between the Sunni awakening groups and Iraq’s Shi’a-led government.
“The awakening councils are part of a government program. They are part of the solution to the security issue. They have the government’s respect, appreciation, and attention,” Sheikhly said. “The awakening councils are the sons of Iraq, and there no differences or problems between this institution and the Iraqi government.”
Jabbar claimed the failure of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s government to pay the Sunni fighters or bring most of them into Iraq’s security forces has fueled resentment and distrust.
“The awakening groups were actually encouraged, organized, funded, and equipped by the U.S. forces in Iraq,” Jabbar said. “The [Iraqi] government was detached from that process. Now that [Iraqi officials] are in charge of these groups, they have views different from that of the Americans. And obviously, the awakening groups have greater expectations than the [Iraqi] government is ready to offer.”
Relations deteriorated further late last month when Iraqi forces arrested Adel Mashhadani — leader of an awakening group in the Fadel neighborhood of north Baghdad — on suspicion of murder and extortion.
The arrest triggered clashes between U.S.-backed Iraqi forces and Mashhadani’s fighters in the district, which led to scores of the Sunni fighters.
Maliki later insisted that members of the awakening groups have no immunity and that they will eventually be prospecuted for any crimes they have committed.
Jabbar said Maliki’s policies toward the Sunni militias appear to be influenced by widespread fears among Shi’a officials that former awakening-group fighters might try to overthrow the government and reestablish the outlawed Ba’ath Party of Saddam Hussein.
“There is a kind of what we call ‘coup d’etat syndrome’ — you can see it clearly in the statements of so many Shi’a Islamic leaders who fear that the [awakening] groups intend to get reincorporated into the army in order to stage a coup d’etat and to bring the Ba’ath back to power — which is really a myth,” Jabbar said. “Yet this myth is being widely circulated here and there, and it seems to have some effect on the decisions of the prime minister.”
Mustafa Kamil Shabib, leader of the South Baghdad Awakening Council, told Radio Free Iraq that none of his fighters has defected back to Al-Qaeda and that they all remain loyal to the central government in Baghdad.
“So far I am still in control of my men and they are staying the course,” Shabib said. ” After all, we are responsible for security in our own locality. We are responsible for maintaining security and creating a safe environment for our families, for our sons, for our government and for our homeland.”
But Shabib admitted that some of the Sunni fighters in his militia are concerned about the next moves by Maliki’s government.
“Frankly speaking, there are apprehensions that, God willing, will prove to be misplaced,” Shabib said. “We hope the prime minister will dispel these concerns by an amnesty to awakening members for
Maliki continues to insist that rogue elements within any Iraqi militia will face justice if they break the law — regardless of the role they had played earlier in helping the government tame the insurgency.
Jabbar said that position could lead to more violence and unravel the security gains made in Iraq since the launch of surge operations.
“Prime Minister Maliki was very, very courageous in taking tough measures against his own Shi’a groups — the militias. He convinced the public that he is fair-handed and that he is against all extra-institutional forces, irrespective of their religious, sect, whatever,” Jabbar said. “Now these tensions with the Sunni groups may damage the whole process.”
Indeed, Baghdad has seen a wave of bombings in the last two days that killed dozens of people, many in Shi’a neighborhoods of the Iraqi capital.
Interior Ministry officials have declined to comment on whether the bombs were a coordinated strike or reactions to the recent arrests of awakening-council fighters.

Analyst Kadhum al-Muqdadi, a professor at Baghdad University, concluded that such a connection is “not unlikely.”

. However Tariq Alhomayed says it seems that the myopic vision of some in Baghdad want sectarian and narrow-minded interests to prevail at the expense of stability. And this is why these Sunni Arab youth who are elements of the Iraq which is well under way are being targeted.
This operation is not the product of one day, the planning for the destruction of the Awakening Councils began since information was revealed that the Americans plan to withdraw [from Iraq]. This came only after the Awakening Councils contributed to creating stability in the volatile Sunni Iraqi regions.
Last year Jalaludin Al Saghir, a member of [the Iraqi] parliament fro the Shiite bloc said “The State can not accept the men of the Awakening; their days are coming to an end.” While Brigadier General Nasser Al Hiti, Commander of the Muthanna 3rd Brigade 6th Division of the Iraqi army described members of the Awakening Councils as being “like a cancer that must be eradicated.”
[Iraqi Prime Minster] Mr. Maliki says that Al Qaeda and the Baathists have infiltrated the Awakening Councils, and the Iraqi government is using ridiculous excuses to strike at the Awakening Councils; including using the confession of captured Al Qaeda members to implicate others in membership of the [terrorist] organization.
There is no secret in this, for the leadership of the Awakening Councils have always said that in the past they were aligned with Al Qaeda, and that they took up arms against the Americans and the government, but it was the same Awakening Councils that turned on them [Al Qaeda], fought them, and brought stability to the central regions [of Iraq].
The question today is; when will the Iraqi government announce that it has made a mistake with regards to the Awakening Councils and protect them, primarily from “internal” betrayal so that Iraq can avoid a gloomy future? It is not possible to easily eliminate 120,000 armed men, unless what is being called for is a civil war, and here the question must be asked: who will benefit from such a war?

Bookmark this article

•     
•     
•     
•     
•     
•     
•     
•     
•     
•     
•     
•     
•     
•     

E-mail this article to a friend

* Required Field

Your Name: *

Your E-Mail: *

Your Remark:

Friend's Name: *

Separate multiple entries with a comma. Maximum 5 entries.

Friend's E-Mail: *

Separate multiple entries with a comma. Maximum 5 entries.

Image Verification: *

 Loading ...

Close