Operations to root out al-Qa'ida-affiliated elements are still underway in Anbar Province, under the leadership of a coalition of tribal forces, according to several recent media reports in Arabic.

A most recent report says that the “Anbar Salvation Front” has captured a key leader affiliated with the “Islamic State of Iraq” organization, but this has not been confirmed, and questions remain over this particular report.

According to earlier reports, the Front announced the immanent defeat of al-Qa'ida-related groups in Anbar province, and asked for permission to pursue militants across provincial lines. Recent reports suggest that such clearance may have been granted.

Tribal forces have been trained in a month-long program at a camp in Iraq’s northern Kurdish region, according to a separate report.

Formed in Fall 2006, the "Anbar Salvation Front" represents a coalition of Sunni tribal leaders from Anbar province, under the leadership of the tribal shaykh Abd al-Sattar Abu Risha. The Front is aligned with US forces and the Iraqi government against al-Qa'ida in the Anbar area.

The Front announced two weeks ago that the al-Qa'ida fighters were on the verge of defeat in Anbar province, according to al-Hayat. The tribal forces were pursuing al-Qa'ida members to the northern borders of Babil province, to the area known as the “triangle of death,” the paper writes.

The tribal forces announced they had conducted wide-ranging attacks in Ramadi, with the help of the Falluja police, and the al-Bu 'Isa tribe in the Amiryiat al-Falluja area, targeting the remaining elements of the al-Qa'ida organization. The group said that the Askari and al-Julan areas of Ramadi had been completely cleared of al-Qa'ida-affiliates, according to al-Hayat’s report.

The tribe announced its success in battles around the Ramadi and Falluja areas, and said that remnants of the militant groups had been chased to the Jazirit Heet area west of Ramadi, al-Hayat writes.

While the Salvation Front claims great success in fighting al-Qa'ida-related elements in Anbar, evidence is still too scant to draw strong conclusions about the fate of al-Qa'ida and such groups as the "Islamic State of Iraq" in the province.

A representative of the Anbar Salvation Front recently called for the Iraqi government to allow them to pursue al-Qa'ida elements into strongholds in neighboring provinces, and asked the Coalition forces for air support for their operations, and for assistance in monitoring lakes, waterways, palm groves, and to eliminate points of infiltration of militant groups into the neighboring areas of Baghdad, Karbala, and Babil provinces, as al-Hayat reported.

The Front’s request to pursue al-Qa'ida fighters into neighboring provinces has apparently been granted, according to a report in the Iraqi daily al-Mada on Tuesday.

Souces in the Anbar Salvation Council have indeed begun to pursue the remnants of armed groups who have fled to the areas surrounding Anbar, entering terrain around Mosul, Tikrit and Diyala, al-Mada reports.

Sources told al-Mada that it was possible that the government had given the tribal Anbar Salvation forces green light for these operations into neighboring provinces. Sources also said that Anbar police operations remain confined to the borders, and are not permitted to make incursions into the areas across the Anbar borders.

Al-Mada also reported that the tribal forces had captured a key “Islamic State of Iraq” member, writing that the police of the Anbar Salvation Front arrested the “Minister of Finance” for the al-Qaida affiliated “Islamic State of Iraq.”

The Front also seized a large sums of money, which the “minister” had in his possession, al-Mada writes. Along with the “finance minister,” the Front captured twenty suspects in Salah al-Din province, according to the paper’s sources. The arrests, al-Mada writes, took place in the Tharthar area in the Salah al-Din province, next to the Jazira area near Ramadi.

The arrests, and the seizure of quantities of money, have not been independently confirmed.

As reported earlier, last week “Islamic State of Iraq” named a “cabinet” for its self-proclaimed Islamic state, in a video statement issued online.

There is a puzzling discrepancy between al-Mada’s report and the video statement issued by the militant group last week: The group names several “ministers,” but does not mention a minister of finance. The “finance minister” is not named in the al-Mada article, and the paper does not explain this discrepancy.

Coalition forces have not commented on the claimed arrest.

One of the operations to eject the group from the Tharthar area resulted in the capture of the “finance minister” and the large sum of money in his possession before he was able to distribute it to the armed men who had stolen it from trucks and cars passing through the Ramadi highway, as well as the twenty terrorists and large amounts of arms, according to al-Mada’s article.

A number of the fugitives managed to slip away to unknown locations, al-Mada reports, owing to the nature of the surrounding terrain that needs special equipment to conduct security operations in it.

Al-Mada’s source said that the security services in the surrounding provinces had cooperated with the police of the Anbar Salvation Front by exchanging information about the fleeing gunmen and assisting in their arrest.

The operations had been underway since last Sunday, in order to “eliminate the remnants of terrorism in the area,” al-Mada’s sources said.

US forces were not informed of the operation, al-Mada reports. Informing US forces would have delayed the operation, the success of which depended on speed and surprise, the paper writes. The source also said that informing the US would have increased the possibility of the information being leaked which would have caused the terrorists to flee. Al-Mada’s sources said that the local security forces were concerned that some of the individuals working with the US could inform the suspects of the operation.

AFP reported earlier that the “volunteers” of the tribal force were training in the Kurdish region of the country, in a former Iraqi Army base known as “Camp Peace.” The camp is located west of Sulaymaniya in the north of the country. The site belongs to the Iraqi Iraqi Interior Ministry, but is administered by the Kurdish regional authorities.

“Camp Peace” was turned into a training center under American supervision in 2004. The camp expects over the course of this year to train security forces from all the provinces of the country, according to AFP.

The camp’s chief, Col. Amir Ghufur Sulayman, said that 7107 members of the police forces had already been trained at the center, from the provinces of Mosul, Kirkuk, Diyala, Salah al-Din, Arbil, and Sulaymaniya.

The training course lasts a full month, according to AFP.

While AFP referred to the tribal fighters as “volunteers” IraqSlogger sources in Falluja reported earlier that the Anbar Salvation forces had begun a program of conscription, requiring each family to enlist at least one of their sons in the forces.

In a separate article, the AFP also reported earlier that tribal leaders in other provinces were seeking to emulate the Anbar Salvation Front model, naming Kirkuk (Ta’mim) province as an example.