Iraqi rebel leader killed in attack, al Qaeda blamed
Source: Reuters
(Adds Internet statement) By Mussab Al-Khairalla. BAGHDAD, March 27 (Reuters) - A military leader of one of Iraq's biggest Sunni Arab insurgent groups, the 1920 Revolution Brigades, was killed on Tuesday in a bomb attack west of Baghdad, the group said in an Internet statement. The group identified the leader as Harith al-Dari, who is also the son of an anti-al Qaeda tribal leader. The Brigades is believed to have given tacit backing to a group of Sunni Arab tribes who have formed an alliance against al Qaeda in volatile western Anbar province. Dari's relatives blamed the attack on the hardline Sunni Islamist group, which has come into conflict with some tribes because of its adherence to a radical form of Sunni Islam and indiscriminate killings. The 1920 Brigades said in an Internet statement monitored in Dubai that Dari "who used to shoulder the honour of fighting the enemy in the Abu Ghraib sector" was killed in an ambush in Abu Ghraib. The Brigades is made up of mostly former military officers and is believed to mainly target U.S. soldiers. Dari's death came a day after U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said al Qaeda was trying to derail efforts by the Iraqi government and U.S. commanders to court tribal leaders and some insurgent groups to collaborate against al Qaeda. Ahmed al-Dulaimi, the head of Anbar's provincial council media office, told Reuters Dari and three others were killed when two suicide car bombers targeted the home of his father, Sheikh Thahir al-Dari. However, a relative of the sheikh said he was killed when a rocket-propelled grenade hit the car he was in. Another person was wounded in the car. Sheikh Thahir al-Dari is the head of the al-Zobaie tribe, to which Deputy Prime Minister Salam al-Zobaie belongs. The deputy prime minister was the target of an assassination bid last week. The sheikh's son is the nephew of his namesake who leads the Sunni Muslim Scholars' Association, an influential body of hardline clerics. The cleric has spoken out against the anti- Qaeda alliance that includes his own tribe. Suicide bombers have targeted a number of tribal leaders in the anti-Qaeda alliance amid a growing struggle in Anbar between the militant group and tribes who oppose it. Zobaie was wounded in last week's attack at his compound in Baghdad. An aide said that suicide bomber was one of his own guards and that the tribe was itself divided between those loyal to the government and those supporting al Qaeda. (Additional reporting by Inal Ersan in Dubai)
| AlertNet news is provided by |  |
