One [tribal] leader said tribes in the city of Ramadi had assembled 20,000 men “ready to purge the city of these infidels”.
No, not those “infidels”.
Iraqi tribal chiefs in the so-called Sunni Triangle have agreed to join forces to fight al-Qaeda, and have pleaded for US supplies of arms.
Tribal leaders and clerics in Ramadi met last week to decide how to confront the daily bloodshed in their city.
“People are fed up with the acts of those criminals who take Islam as a cover for their crimes,” Sheik Fassal al-Guood told the Associated Press news agency on Monday.
He said 15 of the 18 tribes in Ramadi “have sworn to fight those who are killing Sunnis and Shiites”, and had put together “20,000 young men”.
Another sheikh at the meeting, Sattar al-Buzayi, told Reuters that the tribal leaders had decided to take the fight to the Islamist militants who control parts of Ramadi and Anbar province.
“We have now entered a real battle. It’s either us or them,” he said.
After 3-and-a-half years, it seems I can finally add my name to the list of those supporting the “resistance”. That’s those “resisting” the fanaticism of death cult zealots who use their opposition to “occupation” as cover for their own imperialist tendencies.
John Pilger was wrong. We can be “choosy”.