Deadly blasts underscore tenuous security in Iraq's Anbar province

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By Leila Fadel and Michael Hastings
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, January 8, 2010; A10

BAGHDAD -- Five explosions that targeted mostly law enforcement officials ripped through a city in Iraq's Anbar province Thursday, killing at least eight people and underscoring fears that the region's fragile security is deteriorating.

The homemade bombs struck the homes of the deputy police chief, two counterterrorism police officials and a lawyer in the small city of Hit, about 120 miles west of Baghdad, and injured at least 10. The attacks occurred one week after twin explosions killed at least 24 people in Anbar and ripped off the hand of provincial Gov. Qassim Mohammed Fahdawi. They also follow a series of about 40 assassination attempts in the province that have primarily targeted politicians, police officers, tribal chiefs and religious figures.

Anbar was considered an American model of success after Sunni tribal leaders and U.S. forces struck a deal to rein in insurgents in a place once known as a militant heartland. As American troops begin to withdraw from Iraq, the number of U.S. military enclaves in the western province has shrunk from 35 last year to five at present, and by August only three outposts will remain. American forces are largely confined to their base in Ramadi and no longer regularly accompany Iraqi security forces on operations.

Of late, a widespread and complicated power struggle has roiled the province, with elections scheduled for early March and multiple factions trying to assert control over the area, which makes up about one-third of Iraq.

Those forces include the newly elected provincial government, the central government in Baghdad and the traditional tribal leadership. At the same time, insurgents groups such as al-Qaeda in Iraq have used the turmoil to reassert themselves.

After last week's bombings, police chief Tariq al-Assal -- widely viewed as ineffective -- was forced out and replaced with a temporary commander from the Iraqi army in Baghdad. Bahaa al-Azzawi was appointed directly by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, angering tribal chiefs, who saw the move as an affront to their power as well as that of the Sahwa fighters, members of the resistance who allied themselves with the U.S. military to fight al-Qaeda in Iraq but now feel abandoned by the government.

"If this weak government still exists after the election, we anticipate a disaster will happen in Anbar," said Sheik Mohammed Albuthaab, who leads an influential Anbar tribe but was left out of the consultations about the new police chief. "The provincial council spends its time traveling abroad to Turkey, Syria and Jordan, not living here."

It is unclear how long Azzawi will hold this post. The provincial council said it will select a permanent commander but did not specify when.

Assal, who had served as the head of Anbar police for two years, accused members of the provincial council of interfering in police matters, which he said led to the recent security lapses.

"Maybe the situation will be better now," he said in an interview. "How the government interferes with security is unacceptable."

Assal charged that last week's dual bombings were made easier because the 29 provincial council members have their own security details and convoys, which he said were not subject to his authority and could be easily infiltrated by insurgent groups.

He said he had urged Fahdawi, the governor, not to visit the scene of a car bombing last week outside the Anbar police headquarters in Ramadi. When the governor did arrive, with an entourage of bodyguards and vehicles, a man wearing a police uniform was able to sneak through the perimeter and blow himself up, injuring Fahdawi and killing a provincial council member, among others.

"The governor was playing Sherlock Holmes," Assal said. "How can I protect them when they don't follow my advice?"

Tribal leaders blamed Assal for the security lapses, saying that he was more interested in bringing investment to the province, not in security, and that the police were corrupt and the provincial government too weak to deal with al-Qaeda in Iraq.

"We don't need a jury system, we don't need a judge. The tribes will implement the punishments ourselves," Albuthaab said. "I would execute them all by my own hands. Anyone who is killing people deserves to be executed."

He said members of al-Qaeda in Iraq have been released from local prisons after the U.S. military turned them over to Iraqi authorities as part of the withdrawal agreement, an assertion supported by some Iraqi officials. Many of those former inmates have gone on to engage in attacks, Albuthaab said.

Despite the turmoil, all the parties want the Americans to stick to the pullout timetable.

Gen. Ray Odierno, commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, said that although the violence has caused him some concern, the "security situation in Anbar isn't crumbling."

Hastings is a special correspondent. Special correspondents Aziz Alwan and Uthman al-Mokhtar contributed to this report.

Anbar Province Holds Its Breath as U.S. Forces Draw Down - NYTimes.com

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By MARC SANTORA

RAMADI, Iraq — Maj. Gen. Tariq al-Youssef caught a fleeting glimpse of the man who wanted him dead.

As his armored sport utility vehicle pulled past the battered yellow taxi, the commander of the police in Anbar Province recalled thinking how the driver looked like so many men in this impoverished territory — another poor peasant trying to eke out a living.

Then the taxi driver crashed his car into the general’s, detonating his explosives and sending both vehicles hurtling into the air.

“I was not sure if I was alive or dead,” General Youssef said. “Parts of the suicide bomber were scattered all around me, still steaming like fried meat.”

The attack in June, from which General Youssef walked away unscathed, marked the beginning of what Iraqi and American officials said has been a concerted effort by Sunni insurgents to reassert themselves in a part of the country that had once been their stronghold.

Late Sunday night, men dressed in Iraqi Army uniforms killed at least 13 people, including a local cleric. The victims were rousted from their homes in a village west of Baghdad, and their bullet riddled bodies were later recovered from a nearby cemetery, according to witnesses. A doctor at Abu Ghraib hospital, where the bodies were brought, said they all had gunshot wounds in the head.

In recent weeks the targets of suicide bombers in Anbar have included a restaurant popular among the police in Falluja, where 16 people were killed; a police officer’s funeral in Haditha, where 6 were killed; a water tanker in Ramadi that exploded, killing 7 police officers escorting the vehicle; and a national reconciliation meeting in Ramadi, where 26 were killed.

There have also been dozens of attacks on checkpoints and, in the last two months, nearly daily attacks on police across the province as well as assassinations of influential tribal leaders and destruction of vital infrastructure.

“In the last few months you have had an attempt by A.Q.I. to regain a foothold here,” said Brig. Gen. Stephen R. Lanza, using the military’s term for Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, a largely homegrown Sunni militant group thought to have foreign support.

The level of violence is still greatly reduced from 2005, when the local police force collapsed, and 2007, when the surge of troops began and tribal leaders banded together to fight the militants. But it is a delicate moment in a region where militants once controlled the streets and were able to direct attacks into Baghdad, about 70 miles away.

Local leaders are contending with rampant unemployment, a failure to attract investment, tensions between the Iraqi police and army, and fears that competing political forces could turn to violence before the upcoming national elections in January.

Anbar has played a critical role in the history of post-invasion Iraq. It was the place where the insurgency got its rise, where Al Qaeda established a base to stage spectacular attacks that ignited the sectarian bloodletting and also where the tide of the war began to shift in America’s favor as tribal leaders and former insurgents turned on Al Qaeda.

It borders Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Syria, which the government accuses of aiding militants, and it runs right up to the outskirts of Baghdad, which militants have long understood to be the center of gravity in the fight for Iraq.

With American forces in a period of transition, Iraqi politicians positioning themselves for the national election, basic services still in shambles and rampant unemployment, Iraqi security officials say that al Qaeda and other militants would like to exploit the moment in one last bid to derail the fragile security gains.

The fact that Monday’s attackers dressed in Army uniforms raised a number of troubling questions, including the prospect of infiltration of the security forces or extrajudicial killings carried out by soldiers. Even if the attackers were merely posing as Iraqi soldiers, since uniforms can be easily bought in stores, the episode could further undermine the trust of the population.

“We no longer trust the army after this incident,” said Abdul Rahman, who witnessed the arrests and knew some of the men later found dead. “If the army came to capture someone now, he would not go with them, fearing he would face the same destiny.”

At the same time as Iraqi security forces work to thwart the militant networks, the American role here continues to evolve and diminish.

Anbar is the first province in Iraq where American combat brigades have moved out completely and where one of the newly trained Advise and Assist Brigades has arrived.

The new brigade took complete responsibility from the Marines in late September and they are tasked with preparing the ground for a complete American withdrawal.

At the peak of the surge in troops to Iraq in 2007, there were some 20,000 Marines in Anbar, staging out of 10 large bases. There are now 3,500 troops spread across five bases. Eventually, nearly all of the American soldiers in Iraq will be part of these Advise and Assist Brigades as the military moves toward getting all the troops out by the end of 2011.

The new brigades were created to better carry out many of the lessons learned over the course of seven years of fighting a counterinsurgency. While American troops have been focusing on training Iraqi forces for years, the new brigades aim to create a unity of command, where all the various efforts to stabilize and rebuild the province — from infrastructure development to job creation — are directed through the brigade commander.

“The most important aspect of what we are doing is changing the mindset,” said Col. Mark Stammer, noting that more than half of the soldiers in his brigade have served previous deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan, often focused on combat operations. Everything Americans troops now do in the province is at the direct request of Iraqi forces, he said. In fact, the Iraqis rarely ask for assistance on day-to-day security operations.

When militants blew up a major bridge last month in Ramadi, less than a mile from the American base on the outskirts of the city, no American forces responded. Iraqis asked for assistance only days later and only regarding complicated forensic and engineering work, according to American officials.

As a result of the concerted effort to ensure Iraqis take the lead, American forces have less knowledge of what is happening outside their bases. General Lanza acknowledged that situational awareness was a concern, but he said that there was progress in getting American advisors situated in crucial areas of the Iraqi security forces’ hierarchy.

Despite the attacks, General Youssef said that the diminished American role was a good thing since militants could no longer point to the American presence as a justification for their attacks. Since August, there have only been two direct attacks on American forces, according the United States officials.

But attacks on police have increased in recent months, according to Iraqi officials. And as the elections approach, General Youssef says that he expects the violence to get worse.

American officials noted the vast difference in the level of violence from two years ago and the increasing capabilities of Iraqi security forces.

“These attacks are designed to threaten the police,” General Lanza said. “But you do not see the institutions of the state falling apart.”

Both Iraqi and American officials say that the militant networks have been greatly diminished. General Youssef cited the fact that when militants blew up the bridge in Ramadi in October they set off the bomb at 4:30 a.m. Two years ago they blew up the same bridge in broad daylight.

Sheik Ahmed Abu Risha, one of Anbar’s prominent leaders who helped mobilize a tribal rebellion against Al Qaeda in Iraq in 2007, said that the chief aim of militants now seemed less directed at stirring sectarian tensions and more about trying to keep investors out of the area.

“They want to attack for two main reasons,” he said. “They target the police because the police have achieved a victory over them. And the second major reason is because they want to keep investors out.”

The most dangerous areas in Anbar are those just outside Baghdad, including the area where Monday’s attack took place, according to General Youssef.

Maj. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi, head of Baghdad’s Operations Command, said in a statement that there would be an investigation and that the attack could have been the result of a “tribal dispute.”

One eyewitness, who identified himself as Abu Ali, said he watched as some of the victims were taken from their homes.

“I saw men dressed in Army uniforms going into houses and arresting people,” he said. “I went fast into my home. In the morning my brother’s son came to me and told me they took his father.”

There were conflicting reports as to whether some of those killed were former insurgents who had joined the effort fight Al Qaeda or were still active members of a militant group known as the 1920 Revolutionary Brigades.

Mr. Rahman, one of the witnesses, said that only the police and army could move freely in the village at night and that he also saw men wearing army uniforms dragging people from their homes.

On Monday, the village was locked down, with dozens of Iraqi Army vehicles cordoning off the area. Witnesses saw American military vehicles in the area as well.

There were also attacks on Iraqi security forces in other parts of the country on Monday, including two bombings in Baghdad that killed five Iraqi Army soldiers and wounded a dozen more soldiers and civilians.

In Kirkuk, where ethnic tensions between Arabs and Kurds remain high, an explosion in the middle crowded market killed 6 people and wounded 12 more.

And in Mosul, which remains the most violent city in the country, one civilian was killed when a bomb targeting a police patrol was detonated. Two more Iraqi soldiers were killed when they were ambushed by gunmen.

The American military also announced the death of a soldier on Monday, saying in a statement that the soldier died from injuries sustained during a noncombat-related vehicle accident.

Chain of Car Bombs Target Police, Government in Iraq's Anbar Province - washingtonpost.com

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Car Blasts Kill Dozens in Capital Of Anbar Province

By Uthman al-Mokhtar and Nada Bakri
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, October 12, 2009

RAMADI, Iraq, Oct. 11 -- Three car bombings targeted a police station and a government headquarters in the provincial capital of Ramadi in western Iraq on Sunday, killing at least 25 people and underlining the precarious situation in Anbar province.

Violence in the province had fallen sharply in the past year after local tribal leaders, backed by U.S. forces, defeated a homegrown al-Qaeda group and other militants. But explosions and suicide attacks in recent weeks were reminiscent of 2003 and 2004, when the insurgency was gathering strength.

Although the blasts did not appear to be set off by suicide bombers, they were timed to detonate in quick succession to kill as many rescuers and police as possible.

"The security forces are negligent," said Raad Sabah, a leader of the U.S.-backed militia that fought the insurgency in Ramadi. "They are busy with politics and the elections and their own business deals."

Rumors spread through Ramadi and other parts of the province about who was behind the attacks. Some suggested government officials were involved, part of the fallout from months of negotiations over creating alliances for Iraq's parliamentary elections in January. Others said that al-Qaeda was exploiting the rift between politicians ahead of the polls and blamed security forces for negligence. At least six senior security officials are running in the upcoming elections.

The first bombing occurred in a parking lot near the police headquarters for Anbar province and the provincial council building, when a 1991 Opel vehicle rigged with explosives detonated at 12:30 p.m. It killed the parking lot's attendant and another civilian. As it went off, senior provincial council officials, tribal leaders and security chiefs were meeting in the provincial council building.

Nine minutes later, after police, medics and firefighters had gathered at the scene, a gray Daewoo parked 15 yards from the first car detonated, killing 21 others, including policemen and firefighters. At least 67 people were injured in both bombings. About an hour later, a third car exploded near the Ramadi hospital where the dead and wounded were being brought, killing two people.

"It was an organized attack," said Bassel Mohammad, a taxi driver who was 30 yards from the bombing site and whose brother was among the victims. "The city is falling apart, people are dying, al-Qaeda is regaining strength and our leaders are busy with politics and the elections."

Iraqi policemen, unable to control the bombing scene, fired shots in the air in an attempt to disperse people who had gathered to look for loved ones.

Brig. Gen. Khamis Dulaimi, head of the emergency unit in the province, called the attacks a major security breach and said an investigation would be held to determine how they were carried out and why the cars weren't searched at checkpoints.

A curfew was imposed on Ramadi, and security forces declared an emergency. Schools and universities sent students home soon after news of the bombings spread. Mosques broadcast appeals over loudspeakers for people to donate blood.

Bakri reported from Baghdad.

In Anbar Province, New Leadership, but Old Problems Persist - NYTimes.com

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By SAM DAGHER

RAMADI, Iraq — It has been just more than seven months since a mainly tribal coalition came to power here in Anbar Province, but already its leaders are being accused by many of doing little for most citizens while seeking to enrich themselves through sweetheart business deals.

“The majority of them are after personal gains,” said Sheik Ghazi Sami al-Abed, a prominent local businessman recently. “Few are looking to rebuild the country.”

The provincial elections at the end of January were supposed to enfranchise people in this staunchly Sunni Arab province, once a stronghold for insurgents and militants linked to Al Qaeda. After almost all the Anbar Sunni tribes boycotted the previous elections in 2005, this year’s voting was seen as a crucial way to bring them into government and perhaps ease tensions with the Shiite-dominated national government in Baghdad.

But extensive interviews with Anbar residents show that they see very little difference between their new government and the previous provincial council. That council, widely deemed illegitimate by many boycotting Sunnis, was accused so vehemently of corrupt and dysfunctional rule that it created fears of renewed intertribal warfare.

“They are thugs; they became politicians and now they have a lot of money,” said another Anbar businessman about the province’s current political leaders. He spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution.

The discontent in Anbar is coming at a critical time, as the United States has reduced its military presence here significantly and completely stopped spending money on new projects despite the province’s “enormous” infrastructure needs, said one senior American official. It was American cash and contracts that spurred most tribal leaders to renounce the insurgency and switch alliances to the American side almost three years ago, in what is now known as the Sunni Awakening — a model the United States is seeking to replicate with tribes in Afghanistan.

In the absence of American patronage, the worrisome question in Anbar, which makes up roughly one-third of Iraq’s territory, is whether public dissatisfaction coupled with political and economic rivalries between the tribal leaders in power and those on the outside could lead to large-scale violence.

“The structure of modern local governance including transparency and accountability are at variance with the traditional expectations of tribal leaders,” said James Soriano, who leads the State Department’s Provincial Reconstruction Team based on the outskirts of the provincial capital, Ramadi. “There is a potential for a recipe for trouble if the pie is shrinking.”

Mr. Soriano spoke before his expected departure from Ramadi this month.

Anbar’s test also comes at a time when insurgents appear to be regrouping. Almost no day goes by without an attack or a bombing in Falluja, the province’s other main city. Several pro-American tribal leaders have been killed, and there have been a number of deadly bombings in Ramadi and other cities like Haditha and Qaim since July.

The picture is further complicated by a still uneasy relationship between this province, once among the most loyal to Saddam Hussein, and the Shiite-led national government. Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki appears to be pitting Sunni leaders against one another and finding tribal allies here who can bolster his standing as a national leader and help him in his bid for re-election in January.

In addition to money spent by the Americans in Anbar, the previous provincial government received hundreds of millions of dollars from the central government. Much of it is believed to have been lost to corruption and mismanagement.

Among the new political leaders coming under increased criticism is the province’s governor, Qasim Abed al-Fahadawi.

In the absence of new American development aid, dwindling as the United States has urged the government in Baghdad to fill the breach, Mr. Fahadawi has followed the Western model and turned to the private sector for investment and help. The governor was even recognized for his efforts as “global personality of the year” by the London-based magazine Foreign Direct Investment.

But increasingly, the governor’s business affiliations are sounding alarm bells inside the province and elsewhere.

In a recent interview, Mr. Fahadawi made no secret of favoring a small clique of his tribal and business friends over others when it comes to future investments and contracts in the province. His relationship with Sheik Ahmed Abu Risha, who two years ago took the lead role in the American-backed tribal Awakening movement, has caused hard feelings here.

Sheik Ahmed has turned the Awakening movement into the dominant political party here, leading the coalition that runs the Anbar provincial council. Many of the two men’s opponents say that Mr. Fahadawi has basically served as Sheik Ahmed’s money manager, with the two combining forces to use their political power to control how business contracts in Anbar are distributed to outside companies.

Both men insist that their business dealings are completely aboveboard, and Mr. Fahadawi says he has helped bring in investment and jobs that have helped revitalize local industries.

One of the biggest deals the men have been involved in is an effort to bring in two companies from the United Arab Emirates, Dana Gas and Crescent Petroleum, to develop Anbar’s giant Akkaz gas field. Sheik Ahmed has taken the lead in the negotiations, and the two companies have committed to helping create as many as 100,000 jobs in the province, Mr. Fahadawi said.

But the men are circumventing the Oil Ministry’s plan to put the contract up for general bidding, instead appealing directly to Mr. Maliki for support. It was one of the main topics Sheik Ahmed and Mr. Maliki discussed when the prime minister visited Anbar this summer. Almost 175 sheep were slaughtered and the meat was distributed in Mr. Maliki’s honor, according to local residents.

Opposing tribal leaders in Anbar see the deal as an attempt by Sheik Ahmed to use national backing to cement his position as the province’s de facto chieftain and to freeze them out of lucrative business interests. They say he already has a dangerous amount of control over the local government and security forces.

“There will be a bloody struggle if he takes it all,” warned Sheik Ghazi, the prominent local businessman.

Another Anbar business magnate, Sheik Tariq Khalaf al-Abdullah, who was instrumental in introducing American forces to the local power structure at the beginning of the Awakening movement, also is fighting the deal. Sheik Tariq is now based in Amman, Jordan, but he has been trying to galvanize the opposition within Anbar.

In an interview in his plush office in Amman, he wondered why the Americans were not taking a bigger role in monitoring Anbar’s affairs. “I am surprised how they could withdraw before tying the loose ends,” he said.

Sheik Tariq established a tribal council and businesses for Anbar’s sheiks that benefited from American money and largesse when it was more abundant in return for allegiance.

Mr. Soriano, the leader of the State Department reconstruction team, said that the United States would continue to assist and advise Anbar’s government but that it would be up to Iraqis to resolve their differences and determine their priorities.

“A nice way to exit Iraq would be for a tribal society to support the structure of local government and local security forces to prevent a setback,” he said.