Baquba takes a page from the Anbar Salvation Council playbook. Starting to look like the tribal leaders have REALLY had enough of al Qaeda.
An official in Diyala Province announced that more than 280 prominent personalities and tribal and military leaders have formed a “Baquba Salvation Council” to confront acts of violence in the province, focusing especially on combatting the so-called “Islamic State of Iraq.”
Al-Melaf reports in Arabic that Shaykh 'Awad Najm al-Rabi'i, the head of the new “Baquba Salvation Council” announced that around 280 tribal leaders, academics, military leaders, from the full range of sects and ethnicities have formed the council to confront the deteriorating security situation in the province and confront the “gangs” that operate under the organizational rubric of the “Islamic State.”
Citing “resentment and anger among the tribal leaders at the conduct of these gangs,” al-Rabi'i said the leaders were insistent on “declaring war against them and expelling them from the province and bringing security back to the citizens,” the agency writes.
All of these are great posts, Dinah. I was musing a few weeks ago that if the Anbar uprising became a grassroots movement outside of Anbar, AQ was done for. This news could not be better. Its the sound of a coffin nail being hammered home.
ReplyDeleteI'm starting to feel the wheel turning as well. Like we are really making some progress and things are looking up...it's still going to be a long tough slog but damn it - I think we've had some good things going on over there.
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