The US military still refuses to understand Islam. B U.S. general warns Iraq to aid Sunni allies http://www.iht.com/bin/printfriendly.php?id=8902314 Wednesday, December 26, 2007
YUSUFIYA, Iraq: A top U.S. commander warned that Sunnis who fight Al Qaeda in Iraq must be rewarded and recognized as legitimate members of Iraqi society - or else the hard-fought security gains of the past six months could be lost. But the Shiite-dominated government is deeply concerned about the Sunni tribal groups, made up of men who in the past also fought against them - not just the Americans. The warning Tuesday from Major General Rick Lynch, the commander of U.S. forces south of Baghdad, came as two separate suicide attacks killed at least 35 people around Iraq and wounded scores of others. One of the bombings targeted a funeral procession for two members of a Sunni tribal group who the local police said were accidentally killed by U.S. forces in a dawn raid. Lynch has credited the tribal groups for much of the improvement in security in the region he commands, an area that stretches to the Iranian and Saudi Arabian borders. "The people say security is good now, but we need jobs. It's all about jobs, and we have to create them," he said as he flew into patrol base Salie, just south of Baghdad - where U.S. troops fund about 150 members of the tribal groups. "We are in a tenuous situation. We need to give jobs to the citizens, or they will go back to fighting." Lynch, who leads the 3rd Infantry Division, said he had 26,000 members of the groups in the area he controls and that they had given U.S. and Iraqi forces a key advantage in seeking to clear extremist-held pockets. They number about 70,000 countrywide, and are expected to grow by an additional 45,000 in coming months. The groups, along with an increase of U.S. troops into Iraq and a decision by the firebrand Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr to stand down his Mahdi army militia for six months, have contributed to a 60 percent drop in violence around Iraq since June. The U.S. military now funds the groups, known as Awakening Councils, Concerned Citizens and other names. But these Sunni groups expect to be rewarded for their efforts with jobs, either in the Iraqi security forces or elsewhere. "They want to be recognized as legitimate members of society, and that has to happen," Lynch said as he flew over an area south of Baghdad once known as the "triangle of death." According to Lynch, the groups helped reduce violence in his area, a former Sunni insurgent hotbed, by 75 percent in the past six months. "The government of Iraq has to take advantage of this opportunity" by focusing on economic development and governance, he said. In his area, Lynch is trying to bring them under the control of the Iraqi Army. "We do want the good citizens members, we do want to them to join us," said an Iraqi Army captain, Hamdan Nasir. But he added that some in the area still consider his troops "dangerous." U.S. officials have said there were plans to absorb about 20,000 of the men into the security forces, and the United States plans to spend $155 million to help create new jobs and provide vocational training. The Iraqi government has pledged to match that amount. Lynch is not alone in calling for the groups to be absorbed. The Sunni Arab vice president of Iraq said Monday that failing to bring them into the fold of Iraqi security forces could jeopardize the recent improvements in security. Turks bomb Kurdish rebels Turkish warplanes hit eight targets suspected of being Kurdish rebel hideouts in northern Iraq on Wednesday, the military said, the latest in Turkish moves against separatists who have often used neighboring Iraq to stage attacks, The Associated Press reported from Ankara. No rebel deaths were immediately reported. The warplanes struck at eight caves and other places used by the rebels in an "effective pinpoint operation" after spotting a group of rebels preparing to spend the winter in the hideouts, the military said in a statement posted on its Web site. On Tuesday, the military said that it has struck more than 200 Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq since Dec. 16, killing hundreds of rebels. The strikes Wednesday were the third confirmed aerial operation against the rebels since Dec. 16. The military also has confirmed that it sent troops to hunt down the rebels on Dec. 18. The military said the hideouts were located in the Zap region, near the Iraqi border with Turkey. The statement also said that the military was determined to continue its operations against the rebels. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? 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