Battleland

As Cash Payments Disappear in Iraq, Militants Join al-Qaeda Again

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A few years back I was having dinner with a former Special Forces soldier who had just recently returned from Iraq. This time he was working as a contractor there. It was sometime during 2008, because I recall remarking about how successful the surge of U.S. troops had been in Iraq. I had been extremely skeptical before the surge, I told him. I’d basically thought Iraq was lost.

The soldier, however, remained deeply skeptical. He alleged that most of the success from the “Sunni Awakening” consisted mostly of cash payments to get people to stop shooting at U.S. troops. Once these payments to the so-called “Sons of Iraq” stopped, the shooting would begin all over again, he predicted.

There is a disturbing piece in The National today about al-Qaeda making a “comeback” in Diyala province, northeast of Baghdad. (The National is a United Arab Emirates-based newspaper). Over the past two weeks, the article says, these militants have killed at least 23 people and wounded dozens.

The article includes graphs like this:

Leaders of the Sahwa councils, which helped beat back al Qa’eda in the past, say the militants have been working to undo their alliances, with significant success. The Sahwa (or Awakening) Councils were established in 2007 in co-operation with US forces, who provided money and weapons to tribes that had once allied with al Qa’eda, convincing them to change sides.

Now there are indications that some tribal fighters are changing sides once again, and returning to the militants.

Jasim al Zargushi, a tribal leader and Sahwa council head in Saadiya, in Diyala, said: “The situation is slipping back to where it was in 2007 We are once again seeing assassinations, kidnappings, bombings.”

Mr al Zargushi said he believed members of his own tribal force had now been recruited by al Qa’eda, in part because money was on offer, but also out of disillusionment with the government.

“I regret to say it, but I think some of the Sahwa fighters from my tribe have gone back to al Qa’eda and nothing is being done by the authorities to change the conditions that make them do that.”

I hope my dinner date was wrong…