Everett, Wash.
Published: Sunday, November 11, 2007

Sunnis wave off U.S., attack al-Qaida

The former insurgents kill 18 in a battle after asking U.S. helicopters to stay away for their safety.

Associated Press

 BAGHDAD -- Former Sunni insurgents asked the U.S. to stay away, then ambushed members of al-Qaida in Iraq, killing 18 in a battle that raged for hours north of Baghdad, an ex-insurgent leader and Iraqi police said Saturday.

The Islamic Army in Iraq sent advance word to Iraqi police requesting that U.S. helicopters keep out of the area since its fighters had no uniforms and were indistinguishable from al-Qaida, according to the police and a top Islamic Army leader known as Abu Ibrahim.

Abu Ibrahim said his fighters killed 18 al-Qaida militants and captured 16 in the fight southeast of Samarra, a mostly Sunni city about 60 miles north of Baghdad.

"We found out that al-Qaida intended to attack us, so we ambushed them at 3 p.m. on Friday," Abu Ibrahim said. He would not say whether any Islamic Army members were killed.

Much of the Islamic Army in Iraq, a major Sunni Arab insurgent group that includes former members of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party, has joined the U.S.-led fight against al-Qaida in Iraq along with Sunni tribesmen and other former insurgents repelled by the terror group's brutality and extremism.

An Iraqi police officer corroborated Abu Ibrahim's account but said policemen were not able to verify the number of bodies because the area was still too dangerous to enter.

Before the battle, the insurgent commander personally contacted Iraqi police in Samarra himself to tell them his plans, according to the officer and Abu Ibrahim himself. He asked that Iraqi authorities inform the American military about his plans and requested that no U.S. troops interfere, they said.

Meanwhile, farther east, in Diyala province, members of another former insurgent group, the 1920s Revolution Brigades, launched a military-style operation Saturday against al-Qaida in Iraq there, the Iraqi Army said.

About 60 militants were captured and handed over to Iraqi soldiers, an Army officer said.

Afterward, hundreds of people paraded through the streets of Buhriz, about 35 miles north of Baghdad, witnesses said. Many danced and fired their guns into the air, shouting "Down with al-Qaida!" and "Diyala is for all Iraqis!"

And at Baghdad's most revered Sunni shrine, the Abu Hanifa mosque, voices blasted from loudspeakers Saturday urging residents to turn against al-Qaida: "We are your sons, the sons of the awakening, and we want to end the operations of al-Qaida ... We call upon you not to be frightened, and to cooperate with us."

So-called "awakening councils" have sprouted up in communities across Iraq, where members swear allegiance to Iraq's U.S.-backed government and disavow militants. U.S. officials say the councils have been key to tamping violence in recent months.
© 2009The Daily Herald Co., Everett, WA