[NYTr] 10 Tribal Sheiks Kidnapped in Baghdad Sunday

Mon Oct 29 10:19:32 EDT 2007

AP via abc news - oct 29, 2007
http://www.abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=3787228

10 Tribal Sheiks Kidnapped in Baghdad

By KIM GAMEL
The Associated Press

BAGHDAD--Gunmen in Baghdad snatched 10 Sunni and Shiite tribal sheiks
from their cars Sunday as they were heading home to Diyala province
after talks with the government on fighting al-Qaida, and at least one
was later found shot to death.

Separately, 18 new recruits were killed and 10 wounded Monday when a
suicide bomber blew himself up outside a police camp in the city of
Baqouba northeast of Baghdad, police said.

The recruits were gathered outside the camp waiting to be allowed
inside for the day's training when the suicide bomber blew himself up
in their midst, according to a police officer who spoke on condition of
anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

The attack bore the hallmarks of al-Qaida in Iraq, whose militants have
repeatedly targeted police and army recruits to discourage Iraqis from
joining the country's nascent security forces.

Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, is the capital of Diyala
province, where hundreds of Sunni Arab tribesmen and insurgents have in
recent months joined the U.S. and Iraqi forces in the fight against
al-Qaida.

Sunday's bold daylight kidnapping of the 10 tribal sheiks came as the
top U.S. commander in Iraq said the threat from the terror network has
been "significantly reduced" in the capital.

Elsewhere, a suicide car bomber struck a busy commercial area in the
oil-rich, northern city of Kirkuk, killing at least eight people and
wounding 26, police said.

A new general assumed control of the region north of Baghdad,
acknowledging that violence remains high but expressing confidence that
the military has al-Qaida on the run there as well.

The two cars carrying the sheiks -- seven Sunnis and three Shiites
-- were ambushed in Baghdad's predominantly Shiite neighborhood of Shaab
at about 3:30 p.m., police officials said.

The sheiks were returning to Diyala province after attending a meeting
with the Shiite-dominated government's adviser for tribal affairs to
discuss coordinating efforts against al-Qaida in Iraq, police and a
relative said.

Police found the bullet-riddled body of one of the Sunni sheiks,
Mishaan Hilan, about 50 yards away from where the ambush took place, an
officer said, adding that the victim was identified after his cell
phone was found on him.

A relative of one of the abducted Shiite sheiks blamed Sunni extremists
and said the attackers picked a Shiite neighborhood to "create strife
between Shiite and Sunni tribes that have united against al-Qaida in
the area."

But, Jassim Zeidan al-Anbaqi said, "this will not happen."

The well-planned attack was the latest to target anti-al-Qaida tribal
leaders and other officials in an apparent bid to intimidate them from
joining the U.S.-sponsored grass roots strategy that the military says
has contributed to a recent drop in violence.

Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, said Sunday that
the threat from al-Qaida in several former strongholds in Baghdad has
been "significantly reduced" but the group remains "a very dangerous
and very lethal enemy."

He singled out success in what had been some of the most volatile Sunni
neighborhoods in Baghdad, including Ghazaliyah, Amariyah, Azamiyah and
Dora.

"Having said that ... al-Qaida remains a very dangerous and very lethal
enemy of Iraq," he said. "We must maintain contact with them and not
allow them to establish sanctuaries or re-establish sanctuaries in
places where they were before."

Petraeus said the reduced threat from al-Qaida had given way to
nonsectarian crimes kidnapping, corruption in the oil industry and
extortion.

"As the terrible extremist threat of al-Qaida has been reduced
somewhat, there is in some Iraqi neighborhoods actually a focus on
crime and on extortion that has been ongoing and kidnapping cells and
what is almost a mafia-like presence in certain areas," he said.

Petraeus made his comments after a transition ceremony as the 1st
Armored Division, which is based in Wiesbaden, Germany, assumed command
of northern Iraq from the Hawaii-based 25th Infantry Division at Camp
Speicher, a U.S. base near Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit, 80
miles north of Baghdad.

The new commander for the region, Maj. Gen. Mark Hertling, said the
number of attacks so far in October had dropped by more than 300 from
last month, although he did not provide more specific figures.

"The levels are still high in some of the northern provinces," he said.
"But while they're still high ... they have been decreasing
significantly."

"We are in, I believe, a pursuit operation with al-Qaida," he said,
adding that attacks were more focused on local civilians and Iraqi
security forces. "They are targeting the concerned local citizens, the
police stations and some of the gathering places of sheiks ...
specifically to try and deter the Iraqi people from moving forward."

In all, at least 35 people were killed or found dead across the nation,
including the decomposing bodies of 12 Shiites found near Baqouba, an
army officer said.

An explosives-laden car also exploded near a market in Baghdad's
northern Shiite district of Kazimiyah, killing at least two civilians
and wounding 10, according to local police

The suicide bombing in Kirkuk, 80 miles north of Baghdad, struck a
mainly Kurdish area in the city, which has seen a rise in ethnic
tensions as Iraq's Kurds try to strengthen their presence there as a
prelude to annexing it to their nearby self-rule region.

The city's Arab and Turkomen residents dispute the Kurdish claim.

Several cars and nearby stores and restaurants were set on fire and
black smoke rose from the area as panicked people ran over bloodstained
sidewalks.

On a separate subject, Petraeus offered some personal reflection on the
plight of Sultan Hashim al-Tai, a Saddam Hussein-era defense minister
who faces the death penalty after his conviction for his role in the
so-called Anfal campaign that killed tens of thousands of Kurds.

The executions of al-Tai along with Saddam's cousin "Chemical Ali"
al-Majid and Hussein Rashid Mohammed, former deputy operations director
for the Iraqi military have been delayed as Iraqi politicians and legal
experts wrangle over the refusal of President Jalal Talabani, himself a
Kurd, to sign the order.

Al-Tai, a Sunni Arab from the northern city of Mosul, negotiated the
cease-fire than ended the 1991 Gulf War, when a U.S.-led coalition
drove Iraqi forces from Kuwait. He also surrendered to U.S. forces in
September 2003 after weeks of negotiations. His defense lawyers claimed
the Americans had promised al-Tai "protection and good treatment"
before he turned himself in.

Petraeus, who was then commander of the 101st Airborne division that
oversaw the surrender, denied reports that he had promised al-Tai
immunity.

"We were very hot on his heels," he said. "So we put the word out to
his family through interlocutors that ... I would receive his surrender
in an honorable manner and convey him to the central authorities and
that's basically what we did. And I did treat him honorably."

Petraeus said they brought al-Tai's family to visit him and he said he
personally flew al-Tai in his helicopter to Mosul and spent about an
hour with him as they waited for a C-130 transport plane to fly him to
Baghdad.

"I actually visited him there one time. Another time we took his some
family members and an imam to see him," he recalled. "But the bottom
line is that if the appropriate Iraqi process is followed then we will
respect that process."

Associated Press writer Sameer N. Yacoub contributed to this story.