Iraq mosque attack points to worsening Sunni clash

BAGHDAD, Feb 25 (Reuters) A truck bomb that killed 52 people near a Sunni mosque in western Iraq shows al Qaeda is stepping up a battle with Sunni tribes for control of Anbar province, tribal leaders and the US military said today.

The escalating power struggle within the Sunni community in one of the country's most dangerous regions comes as US and Iraqi troops concentrate efforts in Baghdad to stem violence between Shi'ites and Sunnis that is pushing Iraq to civil war.

It also occurs ahead of a planned reinforcement in Anbar by US troops, who could find themselves in the middle of a deadly rivalry among Sunni factions. The US military has encouraged an alliance of Sunni tribesmen against Sunni al Qaeda in the province, the deadliest place for American troops in Iraq.

Sattar al-Buzayi, a Sunni sheikh who has emerged as the leader of the tribal alliance against al Qaeda, said yesterday's truck bomb attack in Habaniya indicated that the Islamist militant group was regrouping after initial defeats.

''When we first formed the alliance, we managed to drive many of these criminal terrorists out of Anbar and most of them went to Baghdad,'' Buzayi told Reuters by telephone.

''After the security plan started in Baghdad a lot of them returned to Anbar and began attacks against our people and tribesmen.'' The US military says it cannot defeat al Qaeda in Anbar without the help of the traditionally minded tribal leaders, who oppose the militant group's plan to impose an Islamic caliphate.

Tribesmen and al Qaeda militants have fought recent battles in towns and villages along the length of the Euphrates valley from Falluja, west of Baghdad, to the Syrian border.

''It is extremely important for us to have the support of the local tribes to defeat al Qaeda,'' said Lieutenant Barry Edwards, a spokesman for a US Marine combat team based in Falluja.

WORSHIPPERS TARGETED Yesterday's blast, caused by truck bomb packed with construction material, also wounded 110 as a crowd of worshippers was leaving a mosque where the imam had criticised al Qaeda the day before, police and residents said.

Women and children were among the dead.

The attack was unusual in overwhelmingly Sunni Anbar in that such bombings are a common tactic of Sunni insurgents.

Lieutenant-Colonel Christopher Garver, a US military spokesman, said the civilian population had become the target of al Qaeda's strategic battle to control the region.

''Al Qaeda in Iraq sees Anbar as its focal point in Iraq. There is serious fighting going on and they are pushing up to Mosul and further to the north,'' Garver said.

''The population is the centre of gravity in this struggle. They are trying to drive a wedge between us and the population.'' Buzayi, who survived a twin car bomb attack last week, said the Anbar Salvation Council controls 70 percent of vast, largely desert Anbar, but that al Qaeda militants were rearming.

The US military backs the alliance but says it does not provide them with weapons or logistical support.

''We need stronger backing from the government. We are fighting groups that have the funding and logistical backing of states,'' Buzayi said.

Not all residents in Anbar side with the US-backed tribal alliance. Anti-American sentiment runs deep in Anbar, where US forces launched a blistering assault on Falluja in late 2004.

Supporters of ousted leader Saddam Hussein and nationalist Sunni insurgents, who battle the Americans and the Shi'ite-led government of Baghdad, have crossed swords with al Qaeda.

Anbar residents say al Qaeda remains strong in towns such as Khalidiya and Hit, where they run Islamic courts, force women to wear Afghan-style burqa, dump bodies of those they call ''traitors'' and ''spies'' on the streets and ban men from smoking.

''The dispute has divided us into two groups. Some people are with al Qaeda and others are against it,'' said a member from the Albu Isa tribe in Falluja who refused to be named.

''We are caught in the middle.'' REUTERS SP RAI1915