Insurgent Leaders Split with Al Qaeda

By Mark Hoerrner

Is it possible that former combatants in Iraq are finally seeing the light from the U.S. perspective or is it more of a "business-as-usual" turf war in Iraq? Either way, the opportunity is one the U.S. military is looking to use to its advantage.

On his final day in Iraq, U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said that negotiations with Sunni factions were going well and that they were turning against former allies, members of the Al Qaeda terror sect.

"Iraqis are uniting against Al Qaeda," Khalilzad said in a press conference. "Coalition commanders have been able to engage some insurgents to explore ways to collaborate in fighting the terrorists."

To understand the division in a practical context, he noted, Al Qaeda in Iraq is comprised primarily of fighters from other countries. While the fighters were initially united through a common Islamic thread, several insurgent leaders are discovering that the foreign operators are less interested in serving the needs of the Iraqi people and are more fixated on carrying out an anti-U.S. agenda. The split has led to open battles in the Al Anbar province.

It’s a long way off yet, but it’s possible that the splits are indicative of a future in Iraq where Al Qaeda is marginalized, though it’s unlikely the terror faction will ever truly be eliminated from the region. The crevasse between the two is not all that different than a version of West Side Story. In most cases, the insurgent leaders are pulling away from Al Qaeda because of "he killed, she killed" scenarios where an insurgency luminary was killed, provoking reprisal attacks and animosity toward Al Qaeda groups.

Khalilzad noted that the rising distrust of Al Qaeda was a significant point of interest for the Iraqi government which is still struggling to find it’s identity in the midst of a much-beleaguered country. Al Qaeda has been responsible for the most destructive attacks on the civilian population which leads to the organization being priority over insurgent groups that might be convinced to come into the fold of Iraqi parliamentary government in the future.

The ambassador has repeatedly tried to bring insurgent assets into discussions with the Maliki administration in order to seek terms for reconciliation and representation, but he said that he had continually barred representatives from Al Qaeda from entering the discussion. Until now, many insurgent leaders had balked at a political or physical split from the support of Al Qaeda but as the war progresses, that split becomes more and more a reality.