By Sudarsan Raghavan
The Washington Post
BAGHDAD — Key Sunni militant groups are severing their association with al-Qaida in Iraq, a Sunni group that claims allegiance to the organization led by Osama bin Laden. The split could help isolate a primary foe of the United States in Iraq but could also further splinter the Sunni insurgency and make it even harder to control, according to insurgent leaders and Iraqi and U.S. officials.
In the Sunni heartland of Anbar and other provinces, Sunni groups are accusing al-Qaida in Iraq of killing, kidnapping and torturing dozens of their fighters, clerics and followers. One leading Sunni extremist organization, the Islamic Army, says al-Qaida has killed more than 30 fighters from different armed factions in recent weeks.
The weekend before last, the Islamic Army posted on insurgent Web sites a nine-page letter urging bin Laden to stop those killing in his name. "It is not enough to disown those actions," the letter said, "but it is imperative to correct the path."
The Sunni insurgency in Iraq has long been fractious, in part because secular nationalists, tribal leaders and former members of Saddam Hussein's Baath party and army have rejected al-Qaida's tactics, particularly beheadings. But the emerging rift represents the Sunni groups' most decisive effort since the 2003 invasion to distance themselves from al-Qaida in Iraq.
"They have realized that those people are not working for Iraq's interests," said Alaa Makki, a Sunni member of parliament with close ties to the insurgents. "They realized that their operations might destroy Iraq altogether."
The emerging confrontation between the Sunni groups and al-Qaida in Iraq is the latest addition to a dizzying mosaic of battle lines. U.S. troops and Iraqi security forces are fighting al-Qaida fighters, Sunni groups and Shiite militias. Shiite militias are combating Sunni insurgents and al-Qaida. In the south, the Shiite militias fight each other for control. In the west, Sunni tribal leaders are suspicious of Sunni parties inside the government. And in the north, tensions are rising between the Kurds and neighboring Turkey. Oil-rich Kirkuk itself is a flash point as Arabs and Turkmens clash with the Kurds over the city's future.
Insurgent leaders, in interviews in person or by telephone, offered different explanations for their split. Many said their link to the al-Qaida groups was tainting their image as a nationalist resistance force. Others said they no longer wanted to be tools of the foreign fighters who lead al-Qaida. Their war, they insist, is against only the U.S. forces, to pressure them to depart Iraq.
"We do not want to kill the Sunni people nor displace the innocent Shia, and what the al-Qaida organization is doing is contradictory to Islam," said Abu Marwan, a religious leader of the Mujaheddin Army in Baqouba, northeast of Baghdad. "We will strike whoever violates the boundaries of God, whether al-Qaida or the Americans."
What the split means for the United States and its efforts to pacify Iraq remains unknown. On one hand, al-Qaida in Iraq appears to be losing legitimacy and support. But it remains a potent, well-financed force, attracting fighters from Afghanistan to Morocco as well as growing numbers of Iraqis, say U.S. military officials and analysts. In some areas, Sunni insurgents are still partnering with al-Qaida. And as long as the Sunni groups remain fragmented and politically alienated, the prospects for stability are slim.
In recent months, U.S. military commanders have sought to take advantage of the rift. Sunni tribal leaders in Anbar are now working with U.S. troops to fight al-Qaida. Zalmay Khalilzad, who was the U.S. ambassador here until last month, and Iraqi government officials said they have had talks with some insurgent groups in an attempt to isolate al-Qaida in Iraq.
"Al-Qaida has killed more Iraqi Sunnis in Anbar province during the past month than the soldiers of the American occupation have killed within three months. People are tired of the torture," said Abu Mohammad al-Salmani, an Islamic Army commander, who said the group had written the letter to bin Laden. "We cannot keep silent anymore."
The letter accuses the al-Qaida group of "killing innocent people with gases like chlorine," referring to recent chlorine-bomb attacks in Baghdad and Anbar. In some areas, it said, the al-Qaida fighters were imposing "Taliban-like" Islamic codes, referring to edicts by the strict former rulers of Afghanistan.
Khalid Awad, a commander of the Jamiat Brigades, another insurgent group in Anbar, said: "We must confess that if it was not for al-Qaida, neither Iraq nor Afghanistan would have been occupied. For al-Qaida has awakened the American ogre against the Islamic nation after the September 11th events, and it is still causing disasters."
About three months ago, al-Qaida fighters began targeting insurgent leaders. Gunfights have taken place in Baghdad neighborhoods such as Abu Ghraib and northern cities such as Taji. In Diyala province, al-Qaida killed or kidnapped several Sunni insurgent leaders and religious and academic figures, officials said.
Now, local insurgent groups have united to fight them, erecting checkpoints and patrolling Baqouba and nearby towns, said Abu Jasim, a leader of the Mujaheddin Army. More than 100 al-Qaida fighters were captured in the towns of Buhriz and Tahrir, the core areas controlled by the Islamic State of Iraq in Diyala, he said.
"Frankly speaking, we don't want an inner Sunni-Sunni fight, and we do not want to have a military collision with al-Qaida, like what the tribes did, although we have all the right to do so," said Salmani, the Islamic Army commander, referring to the decision of tribal leaders in Anbar to side with the Americans.
But the pressure from al-Qaida fighters is growing. They have posted statements in mosques and on the Web warning they will target any Sunni group that defies them. On March 27, they allegedly killed the nephew of Harith al-Dari, the most prominent Sunni cleric in Iraq.
Last Monday, gunmen killed an Islamic Army leader south of Samarra, said Capt. Zuhair al-Badri in Samarra. The previous night, two other fighters were killed. Islamic Army leaders immediately blamed al-Qaida, saying the attack was in retaliation for the letter to bin Laden.
Many of the insurgent groups, however, are reluctant to unite. Abu Aja Naemi, a commander of the 1920 Revolution Brigades based in Duluiyah, north of Baghdad, recalled a meeting among various groups to discuss forming an umbrella organization. The idea fell through, he said, over concerns about turf.
Naemi's own group has splintered in recent weeks, leading to the emergence of a faction of mostly Palestinian fighters calling itself Hamas, after the radical Palestinian organization. Naemi said that for now, the new group was still allied with the 1920 Revolution Brigades and serving as part of its military wing.
The Sunni groups are also divided over entering the political process, said Makki, the member of parliament. His Iraqi Islamic Party is serving as a liaison between the Shiite-led government and the Sunni insurgents, including, he said, the Islamic Army, the 1920 Revolution Brigades and other main groups.
"But mind you, not all of the subgroups of those groups are willing to go in this direction," Makki said.
Hasan Suneid, a Shiite member of parliament and close aide of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, described another major stumbling block. The insurgents, he said, are "trying to negotiate demands that are strategic to their interests." They want a timetable for U.S. troop withdrawals, a revision of the Iraqi constitution and a balance of Shiites and Sunnis in government ministries.
"If they maintain their independence from each other and each one has its different strategy, there will be chaos on the ground and chaos at the [negotiating] table," said Tariq al-Hashimi, the Sunni vice president and leader of the Iraqi Islamic Party.
Saleh al-Mutlaq, another Sunni member of parliament with close links to the insurgent groups, said many were not serious about talking with the government.
"If they do not unite, they will be weakened," Mutlaq said.
"Then al-Qaida will manage to make their Islamic state in Iraq, and it will be a sad day for the country and the world."