Wednesday, Jan 16, 2013


   (From THE WALL STREET JOURNAL 1/16/2013) 
   By Sam Dagher In Beirut and Ali A. Nabhan In Baghdad

An Iraqi tribal leader who played a prominent role in the U.S.-backed campaign against al Qaeda militants was killed Tuesday, heightening concerns that extremist groups in Iraq are being reinvigorated by the conflict in neighboring Syria.

Aifan al-Issawi, a Sunni Arab from Iraq's Anbar province, was visiting a road-construction site near Fallujah when he was approached by a suicide bomber disguised as a laborer, said Jasim al-Halbousi, the head of Anbar's provincial council. The tribal chief was killed and several of his bodyguards were injured when the assailant detonated his charge, he said.

"This was a terrorist act," said Mr. Halbousi. "Sheik Aifan played a major role in fighting al Qaeda in Anbar." There was no claim of responsibility.

Al Qaeda in Iraq has targeted those who cooperated with U.S. troops in the fight against it and other insurgent groups. The U.S. designated the group as a foreign terrorist organization in 2003. Last month, the U.S. identified one of the main Islamist rebel groups fighting in Syria as a front for al Qaeda in Iraq.

Mr. Issawi's apparent assassination represents a setback for Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's Shiite-led central government, which has been besieged for almost a month by demonstrations and sit-ins in Anbar and other predominantly Sunni provinces. The slain sheik was among a group of moderate Sunni figures willing to work with Mr. Maliki after his public rows with several Sunni politicians.

Mr. Maliki on Tuesday described Mr. Issawi and another tribal leader who was assassinated in northern Iraq on Monday as "symbols of national unity that reject the conspiracies of the sectarians and plots of discord and division."

Mr. Issawi and other tribal leaders in Anbar rallied their followers starting in 2006 to join the U.S. campaign against al Qaeda that later became known as the Awakening. Mr. Issawi's Albu-Issa clan had been among the Sunni tribes that sheltered foreign jihadists who flocked to Iraq starting in 2003 to fight what was largely seen by Sunnis as an occupation by infidels.

Sentiments shifted when many of the Iraqi tribesmen saw the fighters' brutal tactics firsthand. In interviews, Mr. Issawi had said his mother and several members of his extended family were killed in March 2007 when al Qaeda insurgents detonated a dump truck packed with explosives and chlorine gas canisters.

Men including Mr. Issawi received arms and cash from the U.S. military to join the battle against al Qaeda in Iraq. He forged ties with the Americans, eventually hosting U.S. military commanders and diplomats for poolside barbecues at his farm house near Fallujah.

The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad said Tuesday it "strongly condemns the murder" of Mr. Issawi, who was serving as a lawmaker from the Sunni-dominated Iraqiya parliamentary bloc.

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal at the end of July, Mr. Issawi voiced concern that the nearly two-year conflict in Syria was being exploited by al Qaeda to regain momentum and strengthen its position on both sides of the border.

"No doubt that the activity of al Qaeda in Syria plays a role in energizing al Qaeda in Iraq, the security situation in Anbar is connected to a great extent to what's happening in Syria and neighboring countries," he said. "Al Qaeda in Syria is the same al Qaeda in Iraq and Afghanistan."

"The situation in Syria has rekindled sectarianism," Mr. Issawi said in July. "Al Qaeda is trying to ignite sectarian warfare."

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

16-01-13 0352GMT