Thirteen members of Sheik Faisal Chilab's family were slain by militants. The US military arrested him twice. Three of his four sons were detained too.
Chaos and fighting were so widespread he couldn't farm his land in this "triangle of death" region south of Baghdad. His date palm groves went untended.
Sometimes he couldn't leave his home for days.
So, he struck a deal with the Americans. The Sunni Arab clan chief now has 500 tribesmen battling al-Qaeda in Iraq and Shiite militiamen paid by the US military.
Chilab and his men, nevertheless, still view the Americans as occupiers, reminisce about the days of Saddam Hussein and are deeply suspicious of the Shiite-dominated government.
Pragmatism among Iraq's once-dominant Sunni Arabs explains the paradox.
But the new relationships US forces have built with one-time enemies are fragile and dangerous -- constructed on a Middle East proverb: "The enemy of my enemy is my friend."
The short-term payoff, however, has been significant.
Two months after the 500-strong "Awakening Brigade" began deployment at 10 checkpoints across the lands of Chilab's Saidat clan, residents move freely and are tending their fields.
Raids by US and Iraqi forces are now rare and about 30 families have returned after fleeing the district's extreme violence.
The use of tribal forces has significantly reduced violence in other areas as well. It began in Iraq's west -- the vast Anbar Province. As it spread to Chilab's region south of Baghdad, the concept made gains as well in Baghdad and adjacent Diyala Province.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's Shiite government has reluctantly supported these alliances, but demands the tribal militias come under state control to prevent future sectarian warfare.
Chilab, his sons and grandchildren were home on Friday to receive well-wishers on the first day of the Muslim Eid al-Fitr feast that marks the end of the fasting month of Ramadan.
Over coffee, tea and a lunch of lamb, rice and salad, the Chilabs and their guests -- all in Arab robes and black-and-white checkered head coverings -- spent four hours explaining to a reporter why they launched their "awakening" movement, what they hoped to gain from it and why they found it necessary to ally themselves with the Americans.
They spoke of the hardships of their agricultural community -- their torment at the hands of the Shiite Mahdi Army and al-Qaeda militants. They gave voice, too, to the divisive fallout in the community as a result of the new security arrangements.
Some of those gathered on Friday carried AK-47 assault rifles, others had two-way radios.
"We want to reverse the marginalization of the Sunni Arabs and gain a bigger share of Iraq's wealth and political power," said Ahmed Ghazi, a veteran of Saddam's army.
"Our awakening is our response to accusations that we are terrorists," he said.
Saddam's name came up often, especially in comparison with the Shiite regimes that have run Iraq since the US invasion toppled the dictator 4.5 years ago.
None of the roughly two dozen men gathered in Chilab's large reception room praised the former dictator, but many said they missed the Saddam-era subsidies on fertilizer, seeds and machinery.
Regardless of their opposition to the US presence in Iraq, none of the mencriticized the clan's new alliance with American forces. The deal was seen as the only option to secure their homes and property.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS