Bill Roggio provides the comprehensive reporting that the media won’t:
The formation of the Sahawah Al Anbar, or Anbar Awakening, the grouping of Anbari tribes and former insurgents opposed to al Qaeda’s Taliban like rule, traces back to last year, when al Qaeda in Iraq conducted its campaign of murder and intimidation throughout Anbar province. Sheik Abdul Sattar Al-Rishawi and his allies among the tribes and anti al Qaeda insurgent groups began forming alliances in the spring and summer of 2006. In September, the groups established the Jazeera Council in Ramadi, and began working more closely with Coalition forces to begin securing neighborhoods in Ramadi. The Sahawah Al Anbar, which followed the success of the Jazeera Council, was formed in October. The Awakening provided the disparate groups with a political platform, and began to work closely with the Coalition and establishing ties with the Iraqi government.
“Sheikh Sattar is authentic to his culture, supports the tribal system in the confines of democracy, and despises al Qaeda in Iraq,” said Colonel John A. Koenig (USMC), the head of the II Marine Expeditionary Force G-5 (Governance and Economics), in a recent interview. Sheikh Sattar is also described as both a nationalist and a friend of America. “In Sattar’s office, there are two flags – one is Iraqi, the other American.” Sattar, according to Col Koenig and other sources in the military and intelligence establishment, wants to build a nationalist, non secular party.
This spring the Anbar Awakening decided to change name to Iraqi Awakening, Or Sahawah Al Iraq, in an effort to nationalize the movement. “The Awakening has contacts in Salahadin and other provinces,” said Col Koenig. Just this week, the Diyala Awakening was formed in the eastern province to counter al Qaeda’s rise. Other Awakening movements are being formed throughout Iraq.
…A critical aspect of the recent success in Anbar province on the security front is the ability of the Anbar Salvation Council to secure some of the most dangerous regions in the province with tribal levies. The early manifestations included groups like the Thuwara Al Anbar, small bands of tribal fighters and former insurgents that both hunted al Qaeda and worked with U.S. and Iraqi forces to identify al Qaeda cells in the cities and towns.
…Captain Eric Coulson, an Army officer in the Idaho National Guard commanding an Engineer Company in the Fallujah – Ramadi corridor, discussed the success in securing Ramadi in a posting at his blog, Badgers Forward. “When we arrived in the Fall, the entire city was sectioned off by barriers, much like the ones in Baghdad that have caused so much teeth gnashing in recent days,” said Captain Coulson in Michigan. “Back then no shops were open, people hardly moved about the streets. The streets were filthy; the debris of city dwellers eking out a survival existence. The city landscape nothing but rubble, the product of the insurgents who wanted to bring sharia law to the people of Iraq.”
“Today the streets are much cleaner; large amounts of rubble have been removed,” Captain Coulson remarked. “What were once the remnants of buildings have been cleared and turned into vacant lots ready for a new existence.”
It’s not all sweetness and light, but even the bad news represents some progress:
Despite the progress in large swaths of Anbar province – from Fallujah in the east to Husaybah on the Syrian border, and Rutbah to the south – the regions north, south and east of Fallujah remain a battleground. The towns and cities of Amiriya, Ferris, Zaidon and Karma are the focal points of al Qaeda and allied Sunni insurgent’s power bases in Anbar province.
The Amiriya/Ferris region has been the scene of intense battles between the Anbar Salvation Council and Iraqi and U.S. forces on one side, and al Qaeda and its allies on the other.
How is this success possible?
“We are standing on the hard work of the Marines and soldiers here last year who worked to build the Iraqi police,” said Colonel Koenig.
This is what we’ve been waiting for and our troops have worked so hard to accomplish. Now is not the time to surrender and leave. Now is the time to dig in, solidify this success and extend it.
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