US calls it a day but leader of Sunni Awakening can’t rest

AS America’s staunchest ally in Iraq, Sheikh Ahmed Abu Risha commands 80,000 militia men and is credited with rallying tribal leaders to reject al-Qaeda in 2006.

But, with two weeks left before the US military completes its withdrawal, his men, formed into units broadly known as the Sunni Awakening, remain outside the new Iraqi police force and army.

Dressed in jeans and carrying rifles, their checkpoints pepper western Iraq, a dangerous loose-end left by the US.

Some Awakening members are former insurgents and members of Saddam Hussein’s Baath Party who fought against the US early in the war.

Their relations with the now Shia-dominated government are becoming increasingly strained with demands from Baghdad for them to disband by 31 December, the deadline for the US exit.

Abu Risha, in an interview in his compound beside a bend in the Euphrates River, said members of the tribal militias in western Iraq were not likely to disarm quickly – and certainly not by the end of the month.

“I don’t think the Awakening members will give up their weapons,” he said, saying that the problem was a lack of government protection against al-Qaeda. “They want to defend themselves. The weapons they carry are their own.”

The Sunni chieftains in Anbar province switched sides in 2006 and 2007, in perhaps the most important single step towards ending the insurgency.

But the pendulum is now swinging back toward repression of Baathists, something being discussed over tea in places like Abu Risha’s tent, pitched in the courtyard of his fortress-like compound.

The Shia-run central government has arrested prominent Sunnis on accusations that they are secret members of Saddam’s long-disbanded Baath Party, which has alienated Sunni elites. Meanwhile, the Sunni revolt against a Shia-backed government in neighbouring Syria is gathering force and radicalising Iraq’s Sunni minority.

About 30,000 former Awakening militia members have received jobs in the Anbar police, and thousands more have entered the army. But Abu Risha warned about 80,000 remained in irregular tribal-based units.

The Sheikh himself has entered politics, with nine supporters in parliament, but he does not hold public office, wielding power instead in informal gatherings over tea or feasts at his house.

He often cites the Iraqi Constitution in asserting rights for Anbar province and describes himself as a patriot opposed to any foreign meddling in Iraq, whether from Syria or Iran. Recently he has become a supporter of autonomy for the desert regions of western and northern Iraq. This, he said, would resolve rows with Baghdad over natural gas fields and the future of militias, with regions being granted the right to their own units. “We will form a region,” he vowed.