Kiss And Make Up, Jihadi Style
The reports that al-Qaeda in Iraq had been attacked by another terrorist group, Islamic Army of Iraq, turns out to be true -- and unfortunately short-lived. Instead of the prospect of two insurgent groups decimating each other, they have announced a truce:
A Sunni insurgent group that waged a deadly street battle last week against the rival group al-Qaeda in Iraq in a Sunni neighborhood of west Baghdad announced Wednesday that the two forces had declared a cease-fire.The Islamic Army of Iraq, a more moderate and secular Sunni group, said it had reached the cease-fire with al-Qaeda in Iraq because the groups did not want to spill Muslim blood or damage "the project of jihad."
Last week, the two groups fought for several days in the Sunni neighborhood of Amiriyah, leaving about 30 of their fighters dead. Residents of the neighborhood and leaders from the Islamic Army, which reportedly is made up of mostly Sunnis from the disbanded army of Saddam Hussein, said they had risen up against al-Qaeda in Iraq because it was imposing strict rules on the neighborhood and killing fellow Sunnis without evidence of wrongdoing.
In a statement posted on the Internet, the Islamic Army said the groups had agreed to end all military operations against each other, stop criticizing each other in the media, and stop taking prisoners. The groups would create "a judicial committee" to resolve differences, the statement said.
Some of the elements fighting AQI apparently were unaffiliated civilians, as first reported. However, the bulk of the fighting came from IAI, which the Post describes as "more secular" despite its name. The IAI also refers to the "project of jihad", which doesn't sound terribly secular either.
Judicial committees aside, it's hard to see this truce holding for very long. Both terrorist groups want absolute control, and they will not give up power to govern the region peacefully. If they wanted to govern, they would have run for office. This is the pause that refreshes gun magazines, and not much more.
Posted by Ed Morrissey on June 7, 2007 6:32 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)
Comments (2)
Posted by negentropy | June 7, 2007 7:23 AM
" The Islamic Army of Iraq, a more moderate and secular Sunni group, said it had reached the cease-fire with al-Qaeda in Iraq because the groups did not want to spill Muslim blood or damage "the project of jihad." "
In WaPo world, who are the 'extremists'? Because they don't want to kill other mohammedans makes them 'moderate and secular'? Goody for us, I guess?
And a group with 'Islamic' in their name hardly sounds 'secular' to me. But what do I know?
Posted by NahnCee | June 7, 2007 11:33 AM
"This makes clear another sad fact; Arabs are not about to take charge of their own lives, and fates, in the same way Westerners do. There's too much fatalism, and belief in "it's Gods Will," rather than taking action, that makes things happen. "
http://www.strategypage.com/qnd/iraq/articles/20070606.aspx
So the civilians, innocent or not, are caught between competing Sunni's and Shiites, competing militias, and now, competing terrorists. Allah's will is certainly inscrutable.