Iraq militias turning against al Qaeda: US General

Washington, June 30: Sunni militias that once fought US troops are now seeking to join them, frustrated by al Qaeda's influence in parts of Baghdad, a US commander said today.

Maj. Gen. Joseph Fil, commander of US forces in Baghdad, said working with the militias compensates for insufficient Iraqi police presence in some neighborhoods.

''Some of them who have previously been fighting us have come to us as we've spoken with them and they want to fight with us,'' Fil said.

''They are tired of al Qaeda and the influence of al Qaeda in their tribes and in their neighborhoods and they want them cleaned out and they want to form an alliance in order to rid themselves of this blight.'' The decision to work with militias, which had previously been cited by Washington as major forces of instability inside Baghdad, follows efforts in Anbar province to help Sunni Arab sheikhs combat Sunni Islamist al Qaeda.

''We think it's a very positive development, we're excited about it. But we are frankly being cautious.'' he said by videolink from Baghdad.

The strategy of working with local sheikhs to develop tribal police to secure their own neighborhoods is being expanded to other areas of Iraq as well, US generals say.

''We'd like to do the same thing with some of the Shia groups as well,'' Fil said.

US President George W. Bush, in a speech yesterday, said Iraqi citizens were forming ''neighborhood watch groups'' -- a reference that in the United States conjures images of loosely formed groups of neighbors that agree to keep an eye out for burglars and other petty criminals.

Defense officials, however, said Bush was referring to the militias the military hopes to turn against al Qaeda.

The United States added about 28,000 US troops to Iraq this year, bringing the US force to 157,000, under a security crackdown plan focused on Baghdad.

Reuters

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