Wednesday, May 11, 2005

Iraq - Sunnis Join Iraqi Army

Chrenkoff reports on the Sunni's lining up to join the Iraqi army.

Interesting news, courtesy of Haider Ajina who translated this headline and article in the May 9 edition of the Arabic newspaper "Alsharq Alawsat":

"Iraqi Arab Sunnis head towards Army enlisting posts in spite of explosions"

After the Iraqi government confirmed the appointment of a Sunni in the position of defense minister. Iraqi Arab Sunnis started heading for the army enlisting centers to join the new Iraqi Army. This was evident by the long lines and large crowds of young men outside these centers in the largely Sunni area of Baghdad. This is the main reason for the increase in the terrorist activities in and around these centers.

The high unemployment amongst the Sunnis is due to non-participation in the electoral and governmental process. This is due to their religious leaders forbidding them from joining the government and the security forces in the past. This situation has now changed. We witnessed thousands of Iraqi Arab Sunnis coming from different provinces to military enlisting station in Baghdad.


So, now instead of an Iraqi civil war, it's al-Qaeda fighting against everybody else. And while Iraqis are uniting, al Qaeda is fracturing - at least in Pakistan.

The rivalry may have contributed to the arrest last week of one of Osama bin Laden's top lieutenants, a Libyan described as al-Qaida's No. 3 and known to have had differences with Uzbeks. Captured Uzbek, Chechen and Tajik suspects have been giving up information about the movements of Arab al-Qaida militants in recent months, four Pakistani intelligence agents told The Associated Press, leading to a series of successful raids and arrests.


Hopefully the same will start to happen in Iraq soon.
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