The website also quotes Kurdish sources close to U.S. officials in Baghdad who said that a special U.S. intelligence unit was responsible for the detention, and that the prime target was not Al-Hakim in person, but to gather as much documents and information such as numbers and names in his cell phone and those of his bodyguards in order to compare with the information from confiscated cell phones of Iranian diplomats detained at Hakim’s residence last December and at the Iranian consulate in Erbil last January. The sources added that Americans are trying to build a complete picture of local political figures and actors operating inside Iraq under orders from Iran. U.S. ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad had prior knowledge of the incident and deliberately refrained from returning the calls of SCIRI officials for hours until the Americans managed to extract the data they were searching for, according to the Kurdish sources.
Sot Al-Iraq reports ongoing clashes between Anbar Salvation Council vigilantes, in cooperation with Fallujah police, and Al-Qaeda militants in the suburbs of Al-Faris, Amiriyat Al-Fallujah and Al-Fihailat, south of Fallujah. A Fallujah police source said that over 70 Al-Qaeda suspects were detained and dozens killed in the operations. Amiriyat Al-Fallujah had witnessed violent battles between Al-Bu Aifan clansmen and Al-Qaeda last week, in which several buildings used as refuge by Al-Qaeda were burned down. The Al-Bu Aifan clan is part of the Al-Bu Issa tribe, which inhabits the banks of the Euphrates south of Fallujah. They joined the war with an increasing number of tribes against Al-Qaeda in the Anbar Governorate after Al-Qaeda refused to pay the tribe compensation for several members they had killed.
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Sources from the Zoba’ tribe said that the majority of their clans west of Baghdad are currently engaged in armed conflicts with Al-Qaeda, which has resulted in shrinking influence of the organization in the triangle between Fallujah, Abu Ghraib and Yousifiya, after the tribe’s area of influence was one of the main safe havens for Al-Qaeda militants. The sources added that Al-Qaeda’s declining popularity in the Anbar Governorate and western suburbs of Baghdad were a result of a vicious intimidation campaign by members of the Islamic State of Iraq against indigenous tribes and members of insurgent groups that have refused to pledge allegiance to Al-Qaeda, and the increased targeting of civilians and local police force members. Several leaders of the 1920 Revolution Brigades and the Islamic Army in Iraq were targets of kidnapping and assassination by militants allied with Al-Qaeda. The 1920 Revolution Brigade has fought Al-Qaeda in the Radhwaniya suburb south of the Baghdad International Airport after seven of their members were abducted and killed by Al-Qaeda. Locals report similar clashes in Saqlawiya, the Zaidan area of Abu Ghraib and in Annaz, southwest of Fallujah. Amer Abdullah Al-Zoba’I, a tribesman who took part in the clashes with Al-Qaeda, said that U.S. forces in the area have not intervened in the battles, adding that the Zoba’ tribe is now prepared to negotiate with the Iraqi government to establish a local police and army force in their areas.
Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki stated that supreme judicial authorities are looking into files to issue arrest warrants for a number of parliament members suspected of ties to “terrorist groups” and for “inciting terrorism,” SCIRI’s Buratha News Agency reports.
500 members of the Mahdi Army have allegedly returned to Iraq during the last two days after receiving training in neighboring Iran, the Haqq Agency reports. Unnamed sources told the agency that several hundred Mahdi Army militiamen have been training in Iranian camps in areas bordering the Maysan Governorate, south of Iraq, for the last three months.
