An
Assassination That Blows Apart Bush's Hopes Of Pacifying Iraq
By Patrick Cockburn
14 September, 2007
The
Independent
Ten days after President George
Bush clasped his hand as a symbol of America's hopes in Iraq, the man
who led the US-supported revolt of Sunni sheikhs against al-Qa'ida in
Iraq was assassinated.
Abdul-Sattar Abu Risha and
two of his bodyguards were killed either by a roadside bomb or by explosives
placed in his car by a guard, near to his home in Ramadi, the capital
of Anbar, the Iraqi province held up by the American political and military
leadership as a model for the rest of Iraq.
His killing is a serious
blow to President Bush and the US commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus,
who have both portrayed the US success in Anbar, once the heart of the
Sunni rebellion against US forces, as a sign that victory was attainable
across Iraq.
On Monday General Petraeus
told the US Congress that Anbar province was "a model of what happens
when local leaders and citizens decide to oppose al-Qa'ida and reject
its Taliban-like ideology".
But yesterday's assassination
underlines that Iraqis in Anbar and elsewhere who closely ally themselves
with the US are in danger of being killed. "It shows al-Qa'ida
in Iraq remains a very dangerous and barbaric enemy," General Petraeus
said in reaction to the killing. But Abu Risha might equally have been
killed by the many non al-Qa'ida insurgent groups in Anbar who saw him
as betraying them.
The assassination comes at
a particularly embarrassing juncture for President Bush, who was scheduled
to address the American people on television last night to sell the
claim made by General Petraeus that the military "surge" was
proving successful in Iraq and citing the improved security situation
in Anbar to prove it.
Abu Risha, 37, usually stayed
inside a heavily fortified compound containing several houses where
he lived with his extended family. A US tank guards the entrance to
the compound, which is opposite the largest US base in Ramadi.
He spent yesterday morning
meeting tribal sheikhs to discuss the future of Anbar. He also received
long lines of petitioners as he drank small glasses of sweet tea and
chain-smoked. He carried a pistol stuck in a holster strapped to his
waist and dressed in dark flowing robes.
Surprisingly, he is said
to have recently reduced the number of his bodyguards because of improved
security situation in Anbar, although he ought to have known that as
leader of the anti al-Qai'da Anbar Salvation Council he was bound to
be a target for assassins.
Iraqi police in Ramadi suspect
that the bomb that killed the sheikh was planted by one of the petitioners
who came to see him. "The sheikh's car was totally destroyed by
the explosion. Abu Risha was killed," said a Ramadi police officer,
Ahmed Mahmoud al-Alwani. Giving a different account of the assassination,
the Interior Ministry spokesman said that a roadside bomb killed Abu
Risha. Soon afterwards a second car bomb blew up.
"The car bomb had been
rigged just in case the roadside bomb missed his convoy," said
an Interior Ministry spokesman, Maj-Gen Abdul-Karim Khalaf.
He added that the Interior
Ministry planned to build a statue to Abu Risha as a "martyr"
at the site of the explosion or elsewhere. However, statues, as well
as living politicians, often have a short life in Iraq.
Abu Risha's death underlines
the degree to which the White House and General Petraeus have cherry-picked
evidence to prove that it is possible to turn the tide in Iraq. They
have, for instance, given the impression that some Sunni tribal leaders
turning against al-Qa'ida in Anbar and parts of Diyala and Baghdad is
a turning point in the war.
In reality al-Qa'ida is only
a small part of the insurgency, with its fighters numbering only 1,300
as against 103,000 in the other insurgent organisations according to
one specialist on the insurgency. Al-Qa'ida has largely concentrated
on horrific and cruel bomb attacks on Shia civilians and policemen and
has targeted the US military only as secondary target.
The mass of the insurgents
belong to groups that are nationalist and Islamic militants who have
primarily fought the US occupation. They were never likely to sit back
while the US declared victory in their main bastion in Anbar province.
There is no doubt that Abu
Risha fulfilled a need and spoke for many Sunni who were hostile to
and frightened by al-Qa'ida. Their hatred sprung less from the attacks
on the Shia than al-Qa'ida setting up an umbrella organisation called
the Islamic State of Iraq last year that sought to enforce total control
in Sunni areas.
It tried to draft one young
man from every Sunni family into its ranks, sought protection money
and would kill Sunni who held insignificant government jobs collecting
the garbage or driving trucks for the agriculture ministry as traitors.
The importance of the assassination
of Abu Risha is that it once again underlines the difference between
the bloody reality of Iraq as it is and the way it is presented by the
US administration. He is one of a string of Iraqi leaders who have been
killed in Iraq since the invasion of 2003 because they were seen as
being too close to the US. These include the Shia religious leader Sayid
Majid al-Khoei, murdered in Najaf in April 2003, and Mohammed Baqir
al-Hakim, the head of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in
Iraq, killed by a suicide bomber the same year.
In practice the surge has
by itself has done little to improve security, according to Iraqis,
a majority of whom say security has got worse. The number of Iraqis
fleeing their homes has actually gone up from 50,000 to 60,000 in recent
months, according to the UN High Commission for Refugees. Baghdad has
become a largely Shia city with the Sunni pressed into smaller and smaller
enclaves.
Cultivating an alliance with
the Sunni tribes had been a long-term US policy since 2004 but finally
caught fire because of al-Qa'ida overplayed their hand last year. It
has the disadvantage that the US has, in effect, created a new Sunni
tribal militia which takes orders from the US military and is well paid
by it and does not owe allegiance to the Shia-Kurdish government in
Baghdad. This is despite the fact that the US has denounced militias
in Iraq and demanded they be dissolved.
The US success in Anbar was
real but it was also overblown because the wholly Sunni province is
not typical of the rest of Iraq. The strategy advocated by Washington
exaggerated the importance of al-Qa'ida and seldom spoke of the other
powerful groups who had not been driven out of Anbar.
Abu Risha had real support
in Anbar, particularly in Ramadi where many people yesterday referred
to him as "hero" and expressed sadness at his death.
But President Bush's highly
publicised visit to Anbar may well have been Abu Risha's death knell.
There are many Sunni who loathe al-Qa'ida, but very few who approve
of the US occupation. By giving the impression that Abu Risha was one
of America's most important friends, Mr Bush ensured that some of the
most dangerous men in the world would try to kill him.
The testimony by General
Petraeus to Congress earlier this week has proved effective from the
point of view of the White House in establishing the US commander in
Iraq as a credible advocate of the administration's military strategy.
But critics of General Petraeus
have described him as "a military Paris Hilton" whose celebrity
is not matched by his achievements. As commander of the 101st Airborne
Division in Mosul in 2003-4 was lauded for re-establishing Iraqi police
units only for them to desert or join the insurgents who captured most
of the city after the general left.
A model for Iraq?
General David Petraeus in
his testimony to Congress:
"The most significant
development in the past six months likely has been the emergence of
tribes and local citizens rejecting al-Qa'ida and other extremists.
This has, of course, been most visible in Anbar. A year ago the province
was assessed as "lost" politically. Today, it is a model of
what happens when local leaders and citizens decide to oppose al-Qa'ida
and reject its Taliban-like ideology."
© 2007 Independent News and Media Limited
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