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Meet Abu Abed: the
US's new ally against al-Qaida
With summary beatings and imprisonments, he has the methods of a
mafia don. But he and others like him are crucial to American
strategy
By Ghaith Abdul-Ahad in Baghdad
11/10/07 "Guardian" -- -- On a recent Friday morning in west
Baghdad, 20 of Hajji Abu Abed's men were shifting their feet
nervously in the dusty yard outside his house as they waited for
their leader to emerge.
The men, young and well armed with Kalashnikovs, pistols and
hand grenades, were wearing the favoured dress for militiamen in
Iraq these days: green camouflage commando uniforms decorated
with bits of US army kit - a pouch on one man, webbing on
another, a cap here, sunglasses there, a few flak jackets
between them. Some bore the insignia of Iraqi army officers.
Around noon, a fighter came running from the large house across
the street and shouted: "The Hajji is coming!"
A pick-up truck came speeding into the yard, followed by several
saloon cars packed with fighters. In the back of the pick-up, a
man with a bandanna swung a big machine gun on its mounting. The
great iron gate opened and Hajji Abu Abed emerged - a squat,
chubby fellow with close-cropped hair and a thin goatee and
moustache. Half his face was covered with large wraparound
sunglasses, a pistol was tucked into his belt and a short
machine gun dangled in his hand. Three guards ran in front of
him and jumped into a new Toyota saloon. With sirens wailing and
men brandishing their guns in the air, the convoy drove the 50
metres from Hajji Abu Abed's house to his headquarters.
Abu Abed, a member of the insurgent Islamic Army, has recently
become the commander of the US-sponsored "Ameriya Knights". He
is one of the new breed of Sunni warlords who are being paid by
the US to fight al-Qaida in Iraq. The Americans call their new
allies Concerned Citizens.
It is a strategy that has worked well for the Americans, on
paper at least. This week, the US military claimed it had forced
the extremist group al-Qaida in Mesopotamia out of Baghdad
altogether, and cut the number of murders in the city by 80%.
Major General Joseph Fil, commander of US forces in Baghdad,
said: "The Iraqi people have decided that they've had it up to
here with violence."
Critics of the plan say they are simply creating powerful new
strongmen who run their own prisons and armies, and who
eventually will turn on each other.
A senior Sunni sheikh, whose tribe is joining the new alliance
with the Americans against al-Qaida, told me in Beirut that it
was a simple equation for him. "It's just a way to get arms, and
to be a legalised security force to be able to stand against
Shia militias and to prevent the Iraqi army and police from
entering their areas," he said.
"The Americans lost hope with an Iraqi government that is both
sectarian and dominated by militias, so they are paying for
locals to fight al-Qaida. It will create a series of warlords.
"It's like someone who brought cats to fight rats, found himself
with too many cats and brought dogs to fight the cats. Now they
need elephants."
A former intelligence officer and a pious Sunni, Hajji Abu Abed
has the aura of a mafia don. And for Abu Abed, like a don,
connections are everything. His office is decorated with
pictures of him hugging US officers, including the senior
commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, and a Captain Cosper.
On Abu Abed's desk stands a glass box containing a black suede
cavalry hat and a letter proclaiming him an honorary US
cavalryman. In a silver frame is a picture of him with a female
interpreter in military uniform.
As the Hajji settled into his office, a long line of men formed
at the door. From a small purse tucked into his belt he
dispensed handfuls of Iraqi dinars to his followers as they
filed through. He is the only figure of authority many of them
have seen for several years.
One old man asked him for an electricity generator; another,
carrying a large file, asked him about a US construction
contract that he was promised. Two young boys were seated next
to him. One had brought him a leather ammunition belt, and the
other handed him the keys to a new pick-up truck Abu Abed had
ordered.
Neurotic
The Americans pay him $400 (£200) a month for each fighter he
provides, he said, and he had 600 registered. His men are awed
by his courage, his piety and his neurotic rages.
Like many other insurgent groups, the Islamic Army had an uneasy
alliance with al-Qaida. On one hand they needed financial
support; on the other, al-Qaida became a burden, bringing upon
the Sunnis the wrath of Shia militias and death squads who
started an organised campaign of sectarian cleansing against the
Sunnis in retaliation against al-Qaida's mass killing of Shia.
"We lost our area," Abu Abed said. "It became a battle zone
between al-Qaeda and the Shia militias."
So when a prominent Iraqi Sunni politician who had lived in the
US returned to Iraq last year and started direct talks between
the Islamic Army commanders from his tribe and the Americans,
Abu Abed was prepared to listen. "A year ago we reached the
decision that we needed to fight al-Qaida," he said. "I knew I
couldn't fight them face to face - they had more men and
weapons. So I started gathering intelligence on their
commanders. I knew them all very well."
The turning point came last year, when al-Qaida declared the
establishment of the Islamic State of Iraq and attempted to
impose itself on other insurgent groups. In one instance in west
Baghdad, they demanded 25% of all the loot from other insurgent
groups' operations. The Islamic Army refused to pay and direct
confrontations ensued.
"The bodies piled up in the streets," Abu Abed said. "Most of
the people had to leave the area and flee."
The Hajji and his men used the same techniques they mastered as
insurgents against their former allies. Sitting on a big sofa in
his office, he recounted the events. "When we decided to attack
we started with assassinations. We killed six [al-Qaida]
commanders in the first week of fighting," he said. "We would
drive in unmarked cars, shoot a commander dead and then flee. At
first, no one knew who was killing them."
Soon an open war started. Of the hundreds who pledged to fight
al-Qaida, only 13 actually stuck with Abu Abed. These days,
almost all his followers claim to have been one of the 13. "When
the Americans intervened, we went out with them on missions,
leading them to the Qaida fighters," he said.
He pulled his pistol out and showed it to me. It was a Glock,
supplied by the US to Iraqi security forces. "This belonged to
the commander of al-Qaida here," he said. "They called him the
White Lion. I killed him and got his gun."
Our conversation was interrupted by the arrival of a big man
named Bakr with a bandolier of bullets over his chest. He
squatted next to Abu Abed, laid his big BKC machine gun down and
spoke to him conspiratorially, covering his mouth with his hand
like a schoolgirl.
Bakr was Abu Abed's head of intelligence. "I was told that
someone from al-Qaida is in the area," Bakr said. "We will go
out, develop some intelligence and then raid the house."
The only vehicles in the streets belonged to our screeching
convoy. A few shops were open and people walked past carrying
plastic shopping bags. All around us were the traces of battle:
craters in the road from improvised bombs, facades pockmarked
with bullet holes, a pile of rubble that had once been a
building.
Ameriya is a closed zone, surrounded by high concrete walls.
Only pedestrians are allowed through the two Iraqi army
checkpoints out of the suburb. The "knights" are the only
authority inside.
When we arrived at the house where the alleged al-Qaida
commander was hiding, Bakr was already in action. He was
dragging a plump man into a car, grabbing his neck with one hand
and his BKC machine gun with the other.
The horrified man begged them not to take him. "By Allah, I
didn't say Qaida is better than you, you are our brothers, just
let me go!" A gunman kicked the man and pushed him into a car.
The suspect's brother, still in his pyjamas, pleaded, and women
in nightgowns stood in the street wailing and begging the gunmen
to release him.
The gunmen pointed their guns at the people and pushed them
back. A young fighter carrying an old British sub-machine gun
fired a burst into the air.
Abu Abed walked into the scuffle. The detained man was not the
target. Someone had overheard him saying Abu Abed's men were
"worse than al-Qaida" after Bakr's men raided the house.
Furious at the insult, Abu Abed aimed his gun at the brother.
"Al-Qaida is better than us, huh? Did you forget when the bodies
were piled in the streets?"
Some neighbours intervened, and the man was released. His
brother grabbed him by the arm and pushed him inside.
Abu Abed, shaking his head and waving his gun, walked back to
his car, murmuring "Al-Qaida, better than us..."
He stopped in mid-stride and turned to charge with his men back
into the house. They pushed the gate open and ran inside firing
their weapons in the air. In the dark kitchen, they grabbed the
man again, pushed him to the floor and kicked him. The women
were screaming and crying. One of them pulled away her headscarf
and wailed, holding on to the man's ripped shirt as Abu Abed and
the gunmen dragged him out, kicking and slapping him. Other
fighters fired their Kalashnikovs in the air. The man was shoved
into a car, as was his brother.
Abu Abed, screaming and pointing his gun, charged at the crowd.
"Qaida is better than me? I will show you!"
He held his gun high and quoted al-Hajjaj, a 7th-century ruler
of Iraq, in a hoarse voice: "Oh, people of Iraq, I had come to
you with two swords, one is for mercy which I have left back in
the desert, and this one" - he pointed his gun at the crowd -"is
the sword of oppression, which I kept in my hand."
The convoy drove off, sirens blaring, fighters hanging out of
the car windows.
After we had settled again in his office, Abu Abed told me of
his grand dreams. "Ameriya is just the beginning. After we
finish with al-Qaida here, we will turn toward our main enemy,
the Shia militias. I will liberate Jihad [a Sunni area next to
Ameriya taken over by the Mahdi army] then Saidiya and the whole
of west Baghdad."
Rumours
Hours later the Ameriya Knights were on the streets again. There
were rumours that Iraq's Sunni vice-president, Tariq al-Hashemi,
was visiting Ameriya for the first time in two years. As we
approached the mosque where he was believed to be praying, the
street was blocked by his guards.
"Open the road for the Ameriya Knights," yelled one of Abu
Abed's men.
"I can't, I don't have orders," replied a gunman. "Do you know
who I am? I am the commander of Ameriya," Abu Abed screamed at
the vice-president's commander of guards. "Who are you? Did you
dare to show your faces here before I kicked al-Qaida out? Even
the Americans with their tanks couldn't come before I liberated
Ameriya." Bakr pointed his gun at the entourage. Guns were
cocked on all sides.
"Abu Abed, we all know who you are, but this is the
vice-president of Iraq."
"This is Ameriya, not Iraq! Here I rule, I am the commander, I
can make sure that you won't show your faces here!"
"We are all Sunni brothers. The Shia militias will be happy to
see us fighting; we have the same enemy," said the man.
"You are trying to claim my victory. I will show you!" Abu Abed
pushed the officer and went back to his car.
That night, Abu Abed decided to attack another group of Ameriya
Knights under his general command. He suspected their commander,
Abu Omar, was allied with the vice-president's Islamic party,
which has been trying to control the Sunni area.
"I have to show them there is one commander. If the Americans
don't like it, I will withdraw my men," he told me. "Let's see
if they can fight al-Qaida alone." By sunset, his men were
gathered in front of the house again. He distributed extra guns
and he carried an extra shotgun with his machine gun.
All the way to Abu Omar's HQ he was humming an Islamic verse in
a beautiful voice. "Oh prophet, how beautiful your light is, oh
prophet of God."
Abu Omar's gunmen, thinking Abu Abed was there for an
inspection, took away the coils of razor wire and opened the
gates. Then Abu Abed's Knights charged for the third time that
day, this time accompanied by gunfire. Bullets whizzed in their
confused way and red tracers flashed against the dark blue sky.
Abu Omar's men were rounded up. Some were put in pick-up trucks,
others were squeezed in car boots. By the light of headlamps,
Abu Abed's men looted weapons, ammunition boxes and radios.
One terrified child was brought for questioning. "Where are Abu
Omar's sniper rifles?" Abu Abed asked him.
"I don't know," replied the boy.
"Look, this head of yours, I will cut it off and put it on your
chest if you don't tell where the guns are by tomorrow." He
tried to put his shotgun in the boy's mouth but his men
restrained him.
Humming
Back at Abu Abed's HQ, the men were put into cells. Men in
US-supplied blue uniforms were being jailed by men in
US-supplied green uniforms.
An American officer, Captain Cosper, visited Abu Abed that
night. He sat in the office trying to make sense of what was
going on. "They [the Concerned Citizens] are not allowed to
detain people or conduct raids," he told me.
In a nearby room, two blindfolded men were being questioned by
Abu Abed's men. An American soldier put his head inside, watched
for a few seconds and left. "They won't do anything to them
while we're here," he said.
When Capt Cosper had gone, the men were beaten up and taken to
the cell. Later, one of Abu Abed's men drove up and shouted: "I
brought another one." His face was shining with happiness.
"Where is he?" asked a captain.
"In the boot," replied the gunman. "I found him standing in the
street behind Abu Omar's building."
"Are you sure you didn't capture Mudhar? I asked him to guard
the back."
"No, no, I am sure he is one of them," said the fighter. The
captain pulled out a shaking man from the boot like a magician
pulling out a rabbit. "Ah Mudhar, I am sorry," said the captain.
"I told you he is one of us."
The fighter kissed Mudhar twice and said he was sorry but Mudhar
should try not to look so suspicious in future.
Mudhar, still shaky, looked at him. Then, confused and angry,
walked away.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2007
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