Tuesday, Mar 06, 2012
(From THE WALL STREET JOURNAL)
By Sam Dagher
BAGHDAD -- Gunmen executed a former Iraqi counterterrorism commander and roughly two dozen policemen in a brazen operation that further undermined a government push for insurgents to lay down their arms.
Officials in the capital and in Anbar province, where the raid took place Monday, blamed insurgents from the Islamic State of Iraq, an affiliate of al Qaeda in Iraq. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
The former commander, Col. Mohammed al-Jugheifi, assisted the Awakening movement against al Qaeda, launched by the U.S. military at the height of the insurgency and the U.S. presence in Iraq five years ago.
The Islamic State of Iraq, which has claimed responsibility for a string of recent bombings across the country, appears to be stepping up efforts to eliminate those who played a prominent role in the Awakening campaign.
Revenge killings would help the group re-establish itself in former predominantly Sunni Muslim strongholds such as Anbar, officials said.
They would also complicate halting attempts by the Shiite-led government in Baghdad to convince remaining Sunni insurgent groups to disarm on the premise that the U.S. troops they were claiming to fight pulled out from the country in December.
Monday's raid took place in Haditha, a town on the banks of the Euphrates 140 miles west of Baghdad. Responding to the attack, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki fired the head of the Anbar security task force and ordered a sweeping military operation in the area known as al-Jazira -- a swath of tribal territory northwest of Iraq bound by the Euphrates and Tigris rivers and bordering Syria.
The militant raid began at about 2 a.m., according to Anbar lawmaker and tribal chief Aifan al-Issawi, and Mohammed Fathi, a spokesman for Anbar's governor. Both provided details of the attack.
The assailants, in military uniforms, arrived in a convoy of 11 black Chevrolet pickup trucks similar to ones used by a local SWAT force. When they were stopped by a security checkpoint, the gunmen said they were on a mission to arrest terror suspects, ordered the seven police at the checkpoint to hand over their cellphones, and then shot each of them in the head.
They repeated the process at a second checkpoint manned by six members of the security forces. They then reached the home of Capt. Khaled al-Jugheifi of the local SWAT force, claiming they were dispatched by Baghdad to arrest him. He was led from his house and executed.
The attackers then headed to what appears to have been their principal target, Col. Jugheifi, a relative of the captain and also former head of the Haditha SWAT force. He was led out of his home with two of his nephews. All three were executed.
A battle ensued between gunmen in the convoy and police at another checkpoint, resulting in more casualties.
The gunmen were able to escape, and the overall toll from the attack was 26, of which only a single casualty belonged to the assailants, Mr. Fathi said.
The assault and the killing of Col. Jugheifi were celebrated on jihadist Internet forums affiliated to al Qaeda with a posting of what it identified as a photograph of the slain commander in military uniform.
Hamid al-Hayes, an Anbar tribal leader, said Col. Jugheifi "fought al Qaeda in 2005 and declared an all-out war against al Qaeda in Haditha in 2006."
Col. Jugheifi's execution follows a pattern of assassinations of important figures in the Awakening, which entailed paying anti-al Qaeda fighters monthly salaries or drafting them into the security forces in places such as Anbar. The government has whittled down the program but has kept many senior Awakening leaders on its payroll.
In February, gunmen killed Col. Saad al-Shammari, an Awakening leader reporting to Mr. Maliki's office, in Anbar.
In January, Mullah Nadhim al-Jubouri, a Sunni preacher who embraced al Qaeda after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 but later joined the Awakening, was assassinated in western Baghdad. He had been a mediator in negotiations between the government and Sunni insurgents.
"For sure, people are going to fear al Qaeda once more," said Mr. Hayes, the Anbar tribal leader.
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Munaf Ammar and Ali A. Nabhan contributed to this article.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
06-03-12 0405GMT
