Sunni militia joins GIs to fight al-Qaida

BAGHDAD -- In an attempt to drive out al-Qaida in Iraq, American soldiers in a Baghdad neighborhood have allied themselves with dozens of Sunni militiamen who call themselves the Baghdad Patriots -- a group that the Americans believe includes insurgents who have attacked them in the past.

The Americans have granted these gunmen the power of arrest, allowed the Iraqi army to supply them with ammunition and fought alongside them in chaotic street battles.

"This is a defining moment for us," said Lt. Col. Dale Kuehl, who commands the 1st Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment, attached to the 1st Infantry Division.

But aligning Americans with fighters whose long-term agenda remains unclear -- with regard to either Americans or the Shiite-led government -- contradicts repeated declarations by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki that no groups other than Iraqi and U.S. security forces are allowed to bear arms. And some American soldiers worry that standing up a Sunni militia could have dire consequences if the group turns on its U.S. partners.

"We have made a deal with the devil," said an intelligence officer in the battalion.

American soldiers in Amiriyah liken the fighters to the Minutemen of the American Revolution, painting them as neighbors taking the initiative to protect their families in the vacuum left by a failing Iraqi security force. Kuehl said that, in their first week of collaboration, the Baghdad Patriots and Americans killed roughly 10 suspected al-Qaida in Iraq members -- numbers that rivaled totals for the previous six months combined.

"We need them, and they need us," Kuehl said. "Al-Qaida's stronger than them. We provide capabilities that they don't have. And the locals know who belongs and who doesn't. It doesn't matter how long we're here, I'll never know. And we'll never fit in."

Kuehl now is working to fashion the group into the beginnings of an Amiriyah police force, since the mainly Shiite police force refuses to work in the area.

The U.S. effort to recruit indigenous forces to defend local communities has been taken furthest in Anbar province, where tribal leaders have encouraged thousands of kinsmen to join the police. In the Abu Ghraib area, west of Baghdad, about 2,000 people unaffiliated with security forces are working with Americans at checkpoints and gun positions. Kuehl said he recognizes the risks in dealing with an unofficial force but decided the intelligence that the gunmen provided on al-Qaida in Iraq was too valuable to pass up.

"Hell, nothing else has worked in Amiriyah," he said.

The militiamen, who call themselves freedom fighters, are led by a 35-year-old former Iraqi army captain and used-car salesman who goes by Saif or Abu Abed. In an interview, he said he had devoted the past five months to collecting intelligence on al-Qaida in Iraq fighters in Amiriyah, whose ranks have grown as they have fled to Baghdad and away from the new tribal policemen in Anbar province.

He said his group numbers more than 100 people, but U.S. soldiers estimate it has closer to 40. At least six have been killed and more than 10 wounded in the first week of collaboration with Americans.

"These guys looked like a military unit, the way they moved," said Capt. Andy Wilbraham, a 33-year-old company commander. "Hand and arm signals. Stop. Take a knee. Weapons up."

Ali Hatem Ali Suleiman, a leader of the Sunni Dulaimi tribe who works in Anbar and Baghdad, said many of the fighters in Amiriyah belong to the Islamic Army, which includes former officers from Saddam Hussein's military and is more secular than other insurgent groups. The fighters have been organized and encouraged by local imams.

"Let's be honest, the enemy now is not the Americans, for the time being," Suleiman said. "It's al-Qaida and the [Shiite] militias. Those are our enemies."

The U.S. soldiers initially asked their new allies to wear white headbands and ride around in Strykers to point out al-Qaida households. But the joint patrols didn't work because the local fighters were disoriented after riding in the enclosed Strykers and couldn't find the right houses, said Capt. Kevin Salge, a 31-year-old Stryker commander.

Before long, he added, "people everywhere were wearing headbands, and I'm pretty sure that a lot of them were al-Qaida."

The Americans then supplied reflective armbands that could be seen from their vehicle scopes, and had the fighters ride in Iraqi army Humvees instead of Strykers. They also gave the fighters plastic flex cuffs to subdue captives and flares -- red to use if they are in trouble and green to signal when a raid has ended.

On May 31, the fighters directed the soldiers to a large weapons cache. Sniper rifles, Russian machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades and thousands of rounds of ammunition were stashed in a secret room, accessible only by removing a circuit-breaker box and crawling through a hole. While the Americans were tallying the haul, an explosive detonated outside, wounding several soldiers, including one whose feet were blown off.

In return for their services, the militiamen had one request: Give us the weapons in the cache.

"Who are these guys, really?" Salge remembered worrying. He told them to talk to the battalion commander.

Kuehl said later that he probably would supply weapons to the militiamen, but in limited amounts. The fighters have given the Americans identification, including fingerprints, addresses and retinal scans, so the soldiers believe they could track down anyone who betrayed them. "What I don't want them to do is wither on the vine," Kuehl said.

On Wednesday, a week after the fighting broke out, the Islamic Army issued a statement declaring a cease-fire with al-Qaida in Iraq because the groups did not want to spill more Muslim blood or impede "the project of jihad." American soldiers played down the statement and suggested it did not reflect the sentiments of the men they are working with in Amiriyah.

Later that night, Wilbraham led his tank unit on an overnight mission to allow the militiamen to arrest seven al-Qaida in Iraq members.

The raids were to begin at 1 a.m., but the tanks were waiting on deserted streets two hours later, with no sign of the group. Wilbraham then was told the militiamen had called off the raids.

The tank driver, Spec. Estevan Altamirano, 25, expressed skepticism about his new partners.

"Pretty soon they run out of al-Qaida, and then they're going to turn on us," he said.