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Ba'quba, Aug 17, (VOI)- The Diyala Salvation Council announced on Friday the completion of all preparations to open 12 offices inside the province’s five districts: Baaquba, Khalis, Muqdadiya, Balad Ruz, Khanqin.
“The new branches will coordinate between tribes and government departments, mainly security departments (police and army),” member of the council Awaad Nejm told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI).
“The council, which consists of 70 tribal chiefs and 600 political and academic figures, tries to finalize the national reconciliation project in eight villages in Baaquba district,” he also said.
“The villages are: Abu Saida al-Saghera, al-Sheje, al-Makhesa, Abu Karma, al-Jalbi, al-Kaba, Zaghniya al-Kabiera, Zaghniya al-Saghiera. These villages witnessed in the past days wide-scale security operations to hunt down gunmen,” the official noted.
More than 10,000 Iraqi and U.S. forces have been engaged in the largest security operation in Diyala province (Operation Arrowhead Ripper) since mid-June to drive out armed groups in the province.
Diyala, inhabited by a mix of Arabs, Turkomans and Kurds, is one of the strongholds of armed groups, particularly the al-Qaeda Organization in Iraq.
The council was formed in May, and has been cooperating with Iraqi and US forces, though the council cannot claim any palpable drop in violence in Diyala Province in the way that the Anbar Salvation Council can claim in its respective governorate. The Anbar Council is a coalition of Sunni tribal forces in that province, on which the Diyala Council was modeled. Formed in fall 2006, the pro-US Anbar tribal forces claim a major role in the reduction in violence in that province.
Ba'quba, the capital city of Diyala, is located 57 km northeast of Baghdad.
