Key anti-al-Qaida sheik slain in Iraq

Assassination of the leader of the Sunni Arab

news.yahoo.com

Abu Risha, head of the Anbar Awakening Council who met with President Bush just 10 days earlier, died when a roadside bomb exploded near his home just west of Ramadi as he returned from his farm, police Col. Tareq Youssef said. Two bodyguards and the driver also were killed.

Moments later a car bomb exploded nearby but caused no casualties. An Interior Ministry spokesman, Maj. Gen. Abdul-Karim Khalaf, said the second bomb was intended as a backup in case Abu Risha escaped the first blast.

The attack occurred one year after the goateed, charismatic, chain-smoking young sheik organized 25 Sunni Arab clans into an alliance against al-Qaida in Iraq, seeking to drive the terror movement from sanctuaries where it had flourished after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.

No group claimed responsibility for the assassination, but it was widely assumed to have been carried out by al-Qaida, which already had killed four of Abu Risha's brothers and six other relatives for working with the U.S. military.

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Mod Edit - Headline: Please use the original story headline from your source.

[edit on 9/13/2007 by Gools]

Don't shake hands with the devil !

news.yahoo.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

[edit on 13-9-2007 by cain-diedhi]

Wow, this is going to have repercusions. Against alot of people. I'm going to keep an eye on this one. And where will it leave the 25 Sunni Arab council?

Al Qaeda tends to do by terror instead of hearts and minds. Not surprise by this.