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Sunni insurgency militants fight with alqaeda { June 1 2007 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/world/4852944.htmlhttp://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/world/4852944.html
June 1, 2007, 12:22AM
Sunnis in Baghdad rise up to fight al-Qaida militants
Armed citizens said to have engaged them in street combat
By JOHN WARD ANDERSON
Washington Post
BAGHDAD — Sunni residents of a west Baghdad neighborhood used assault rifles and a roadside bomb to battle the Sunni insurgent group al-Qaida in Iraq this week, leaving at least 28 people dead and six injured, residents said Thursday.
The mayor of the Amiriyah neighborhood, Mohammed Abdul Khaliq, said in a telephone interview that residents were rising up to try to expel al-Qaida in Iraq, which has alienated more moderate Sunnis because of its indiscriminate violence and attacks on members of its own sect.
"I think this is going to be the end of the al-Qaida presence here," Abdul Khaliq said of the fighting Wednesday and Thursday, which began over accusations that al-Qaida in Iraq executed Sunnis without reason.
The Baghdad battle is evidence of a deepening split between some Sunni insurgent groups and al-Qaida in Iraq, which claims allegiance to Osama bin Laden.
Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno, the No. 2 commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, said Thursday that 12,000 Anbar residents have joined the Iraqi security forces in the first five months of this year, compared with 1,000 in all of last year.
Tribal leaders say they are signing up because they oppose al-Qaida in Iraq's extremist ideologies and its attacks on local residents.
Problems arose on Tuesday when the Islamic Army, a powerful Sunni insurgent group, posted a statement at a local mosque criticizing al-Qaida in Iraq for killing dozens of other Sunnis in Fallujah and Baghdad "on suspicion only." The message warned al-Qaida in Iraq to stop the practice, which it said could lead to clashes.
Late Wednesday afternoon, according to residents reached by phone, an armed group scrawled graffiti on a school wall reading, "Down with al-Qaida, long live the honest resistance." When al-Qaida in Iraq members came to wipe away the writing, a roadside bomb exploded nearby, killing three of them.
Al-Qaida in Iraq then attacked a mosque associated with the Islamic Army, killing the group's leader, Razi al-Zobai, and four other fighters, complaining in a statement that the Islamic Army had become involved in the political process in Iraq.
In retaliation, the Islamic Army attacked a mosque associated with al-Qaida in Iraq, killing one of the group's leaders.
On Thursday, al-Qaida in Iraq reinforcements arrived from other Baghdad neighborhoods, residents said, and furious fighting erupted between the groups that lasted for about four hours, leaving nine al-Qaida in Iraq and six Islamic Army fighters dead.
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