Posted on 04/09/2005 7:22:56 PM PDT by SmithL
CAIRO, Egypt - There are new signs of hostility between homegrown insurgents in Iraq and extremists fighting under al-Qaida's banner - including foreigners - with the two camps trading threats and increasingly divided over the strategy of killing civilians to undermine the fragile new government.
The tension comes at a crucial moment as the mainstream component of the Sunni Arab-led insurgency - which remains active, deadly and going strong nearly two years after it began - makes tentative moves to translate its militant firepower into political gain.
What's driving the change appears to be Iraq's new post-election realities - a majority Shiite- and Kurdish-dominated political process that's on course and a population deeply angered by continuing violence that's picking off ever more of the nation's fledgling army and police forces.
"You see a withering of the insurgents that had a short-term agenda, like preventing the January election. But the insurgency is not unraveling yet," said Peter Khalil, former director of national security policy for the now-defunct US-led occupation authority in Iraq.
The divide among militants, however, is becoming more noticeable.
In Ramadi, the capital of Anbar Province and a stronghold of the insurgency, homegrown Iraqi fighters have begun recently to air their differences in menacing fliers plastered on walls and distributed in mosques _ making threats and denouncing the tactics of the extremists, according to witnesses who have seen the fliers.
The rift also involves Sunni Arab tribal leaders frustrated by the continuing violence. And it is being encouraged by Iraqi authorities in hopes it will isolate the violent militants. The Iraqi TV channel Al-Iraqiya has recently been showing nightly interviews with captured Iraqi insurgents and foreign fighters, many who speak of alleged links to Syrian intelligence.
Meantime, there are unconfirmed news reports in Arab media that factions of the insurgency may be indirectly negotiating with authorities to lay down their arms in return for amnesty, jobs and reconstruction money. The Iraqi government has not commented.
You can believe it. It is an AP article.
No, it is no way to run a quagmire. :)
It's Bush's fault!
Might have to call the UN back in to give the terrorists some cover so they can regroup.
Ping!
This is nothing new. There's always been a split in the insurgents, the nationalists, mostly ex-Baathists loyal to the Saddam regime, essentially patriots wary of outsiders in some cases, renegade genocidal maniacs in others who would be punished by the people of Iraq, let alone US forces, if caught; and then there's the Jihadi, who are from outside Iraq anyway using our presence to make trouble, though if we weren't there they'd try to set up a islamofascist dictatorship. The former have been trying to end the conflict for some time now, using carrot and stick--taking to fighting at times as they see fit... Of course the latter have been immolating themselves to kill more Americans, well--if they're trying to destroy themselves, lets not get in their way (just shield our guys better so fewer KIAs)
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