US-Allied Sunni Shaikh Killed.

Shaikh Abdul-Sattar Abu Risha, 37, leader of a US-allied Sunni tribal coalition in the province of Anbar, was on Sept. 13 killed in a suicide bombing hours before President Bush was to deliver his speech. Abu Risha, whose Anbar Salvation Council (ASC) has been cited by US officials as having turned the tide against al-Qaeda in the western province, was killed along with two of his bodyguards and an aide near his home in Ramadi, capital of Anbar. He was succeeded by his brother Shaikh Ahmad.

Over 1,500 marching mourners on Sept. 14 vowed revenge and perseverance at the funeral in Ramadi. Scores of Iraqi police officers and US military vehicles lined the route to protect the procession as it followed the black SUV carrying the coffin. "We will take our revenge", the mourners chanted along the 10 km route to the family cemetery, many of them crying, vowing: "We will continue the march of Abu Risha". He was killed ten days after he shook hands with visiting President Bush and buried one year after he organised 25 Sunni clans under the umbrella of the Anbar Awakening Council, an alliance against al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia, to drive terrorists from sanctuaries where they had flourished after the US invasion in 2003.

Al-Qaeda on Sept. 14 took credit for the murder in a Web statement, saying: "Allah enabled your brothers...to track down and assassinate the imam of infidelity and apostasy...one of the dogs of Bush" - signed by the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI), a Web-based entity. It said it was a "heroic operation that took over a month to prepare".

US officials credit Abu Risha and allied sheikhs, of the Dulaim confederation of tribes, with a dramatic improvement in security in such Anbar flash points as Falluja and Ramadi after years of American failure to subdue the Neo-Salafi extremists. US officials now talk of using the Anbar model to organise tribal fighters elsewhere in Iraq. Bush hailed Abu Risha's courage during his short Sept. 3 visit to al-Asad Air Base and vowed in his nationally televised Sept. 13 address to help others carry on his work. Bush said: "Earlier today, one of the brave tribal shaikhs who helped lead the revolt against al-Qaeda was murdered. In response, a fellow Sunni leader declared: 'We are determined to strike back and continue our work'. And as they do, they can count on the continued support of the United States".

Abu Risha was killed right at the start of the holy Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. Abu Risha had said he had set up the council after his father and two brothers were killed by al-Qaeda. Al-Qaeda had forced Talibanisation down Anbar people's throats, a pattern now imposed on parts of Diyala province and elsewhere in Iraq where its Neo-Salafi militants are in control. Among many other things, Talibanisation means forced marriages and a life style which only a few Sunni zealots in Iraq can tolerate.

Al-Qaeda's close relationship is with the Mashhadani tribe, which used to be very close to Saddam's Sunni/Ba'thist dictatorship. But a big section of this tribe has rebelled against al-Qaeda, as in the case of parliament's Speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani whose clan has long broken away from the Neo-Salafis.

However, both the Dulaim and Mashhadani tribes detest the Shi'ite-led government of in Baghdad. Experts in the affairs of Iraq's Sunni Arab tribes explain that what has been happening in Anbar could only be a replay of what happened in eastern Afghanistan in late 2001, where local tribes gained from US largesse - and weapons - and then proceeded with their own tribal and/or nationalist agenda. They say what matters most for all these tribes is restoration of Sunni power.

The Dulaim tribes and sub-clans could eventually try to topple the government in Baghdad. If the US tries to prevent them from doing that, they would turn against the Americans once again.

Leading Neo-Salafi groups such as Jaysh Ansar al-Sunna, the 1920 Revolution Brigades and the Islamic Front for Iraqi Resistance have made it clear that their enemies remain the US occupation, the Maliki government and al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia. This summer, three of these groups - the 1920 Revolution Brigades, Jaysh Ansar al-Sunna and Iraqi Hamas - formed the Political Office for the Iraqi Resistance, an alliance to throw out all of the US troops, block any collaboration with occupation-endorsed institutions, and declare null and void any agreement between the US and the Iraqi government.

These experts warn that the three really relevant internal wars in Iraq will be in Baghdad (between Sunnis and Shi'ites), in Basra (between Shi'ite militias, to control the oil in the south) and in Kirkuk (between Kurds and Arabs/Turkmans, for the same reason).

Apart from its war against the Neo-Salafis, the Bush administration now seems to be fighting Shi'ites - both in Iran (the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, IRGC) and in Iraq (the rogues of Muqtada al-Sadr's Jaysh al-Mahdi, JaM). Shi'ites in both Iran and southern Iraq are sitting over a lot of oil.

According to the latest BBC/ABC News poll, no less than 97% of Iraqi Sunnis want a unified, centralised Iraq with Baghdad as capital. Only 56% of Shi'ites want it, not to mention only 9% of Kurds. No less than 98% of Sunnis are against the Maliki government. And no less than 92% of Sunnis are in favour of attacks against occupation troops, including US-backed Dulaimis.