Sheikh Abdul Sattar Abu Risha was a key Sunni Arab ally of the US and Iraqi governments in Iraq’s western Anbar province.
The 37-year-old leader of the Al Bu Risha tribe was killed in a bomb attack near his home in the provincial capital, Ramadi, on Thursday.
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Abu Risha was part of a group of young tribal sheikhs whose power grew after more senior leaders fled Anbar or were killed in the insurgency that gripped the province.
In September 2006, angered by the killings of both his father and two brothers by al-Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Risha approached the US military about forming an alliance to fight the Sunni extremist group.
The US agreed to provide funding and soon began to train members of the sheikh’s tribe and placed a M1 tank outside his compound to provide protection.
According to the deputy US commander in Iraq, Gen Raymond Odierno, the "handshake agreement" was based on the tribes agreeing to three conditions:
- halting action against US-led coalition and Iraqi forces
- pledging to fight al-Qaeda in Iraq
- attempting to draw the tribal militias into the Iraqi security forces, especially the police
Other tribal leaders began to join the so-called Anbar Salvation Council, or Anbar Awakening, after seeing it was possible to secure their own communities, and soon the council had a force of 2,100 men.
I have nothing political to say about
Abdul Sattar Abu Risha‘s death. Somehow, the pictures humanize him, just as the pictures of
Yance Gray and
Omar Mora personalized two American soldiers yesterday. They’re three of many casualties in the absurd drama that’s unfolding in the Iraqi Desert, now in its fifth year. Our President thought that he could export American Democracy to a feudal tribal society as old as the sands it thrives on. Mohammed himself tried the same thing in the First Millenium. He conquered Mecca and destroyed the all the images of deities except one, the stone of Abraham. His message was simple – there is only one God, and the tribalism and endless warfare needed to cease. It didn’t actually work any better than the visions of other well-meaning religious figures. If Mohammed couldn’t do it, I’m pretty sure George W. Bush can’t do it. I’ll forgo trying to distinguish between the Sunni and Shia sects. Whatever I’ll say will be somehow wrong, and it really doesn’t matter to us anyway. They just fight against each other. It’s what they do. But this particular slaying is a blow to the
Bush/Petraeus/Crocker story and I worry that it will fuel Bush’s vengefulness. I expect that whomever assasinated Risha was out to show what happens if you side with the Infidels. Sort of like Bush and Cheney were out to show Saddam Hussein what happens if you cross them. In the end, it just comes down to people killing each other, and thinking it’s okay…
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