As US and Iraqi forces prepare for an anticipated security crackdown in Iraq's Diyala province, Iraqi officials have announced that only uniformed troops will participate in the fighting in what is termed the last major stronghold of the al-Qa'ida in Iraq organization.
However, on Sunday, tribal leaders have offered to participate in the armed operations in the restive province northeast of Baghdad, at a conference attended by representatives of high-level security and political officials.
An official security source in Diyala Province announced that 56,000 Iraqi troops will participate in the planned security operations in the province, while ruling out the participation of "unofficial parties" in the fighting, Eye Iraq reports in Arabic.
"The operational administration will be vested in the ground forces commander as well as the commanders of the Interior and Defense ministries," the source said, Eye Iraq reports in Arabic.
Intensive measures will be taken during the operations including the forbidding of the so-called "Popular Committees" to participate in the operations and forbidding any bearing of arms in public. Joint forces will arrest anyone carrying weapons in the streets, without distinction to their affiliation, the source said.
Diyala's "Popular Committees" are locally organized armed groups, often recruited on a tribal basis, that have cooperated with US forces in the province in exchange for payment or influence. Many are former members of the insurgency that fought with US forces in the past.
All checkpoints established by the popular committees will also be disbanded, the source added, Eye Iraq writes.
However, al-Malaf Press reports in Arabic that tribal leaders in the province convened on Sunday afternoon in a conference to announce their readiness to participate in the upcoming security operations, but according to official Iraqi pronouncements, only uniformed Iraqi troops will participate in the fighting, with the support and oversight of Coalition troops. At the conference in Ba'qouba, which was attended by representatives of the Iraqi security apparatus and of the Iraqi prime minister, tribal leaders said they were prepared to play a similar role to their fellow tribesmen in Maysan and Basra provinces during recent crackdowns there.
Along with the question of the participation of tribal forces and the "popular committees," it is unknown what, if any, role the Kurdish militia and security forces that operate in Diyala Province under the command of the two major Kurdish parties, might play in the upcoming operations.
Aswat al-Iraq reported last week in Arabic that Kurdish Asayish intelligence forces operating in Diyala Province found an arms cache in a village in the Khanqin district. The weapons dump included anti-aircraft weapons, mortars, rocket-propelled grenades, and artillery shells.
The Khanqin area, and other parts of northern Diyala Province, are disputed between the Iraqi Kurdistan autonomous regional government and the central Baghdad government.
