Sheiks Help Curb Violence in Iraq's West, U.S. Says

Others See Peril in Tribal Confederation

RAMADI, Iraq -- Before tribal sheiks aligned themselves with U.S. forces in the violent deserts of western Iraq, the number of people willing to become police officers in the city of Ramadi -- the epicenter of the fight against the insurgent group known as al-Qaeda in Iraq -- might not have filled a single police pickup.

"Last March was zero," said Maj. Gen. Richard C. Zilmer, the Marine commander in western Iraq, referring to the number of men recruited that month.

With the help of a confederation of about 50 Sunni Muslim tribal sheiks, the U.S. military recruited more than 800 police officers in December and is on track to do the same this month. Officers credit the sheiks' cooperation for the diminishing violence in Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province.

"I don't want to paint too rosy a picture, but if you compare this to what it was seven or eight months ago, there is not a place in this city that al-Qaeda controls," said Lt. Col. James Lechner, deputy commander of the 1st Brigade, 1st Armored Division, in Ramadi.

But some Iraqi politicians and Anbar residents who oppose the U.S. presence describe the confederation, known as the Awakening, as a divisive group that pits tribes against each other, uses police officers as armed guards to protect tribal territory, and harnesses American support to consolidate its power.

Fasal al-Gaood, a tribal sheik and former Anbar governor who was seen as an ally of the Americans during his term in office, said the group has been given more authority than it deserves. Gaood, who has survived several assassination attempts, said he was worried that insurgent infiltrators might lurk inside the rapidly growing police force.

"Many of those sheiks are actually following two tracks," he said, speaking from his current home in Jordan. "On the one hand, they say, 'We support the council.' But they're not playing a direct role in it, because at the same time they also have connections with other organizations that are outside the law."

Lechner conceded that "insurgent infiltration is undoubtedly an issue" but said in an e-mail that the U.S. military relies on a computer database to check whether recruits have a history of known insurgent activity. They are also "vetted and vouched for by family members and tribal leaders," he said.

Saleh al-Mutlak, parliamentary leader of the secular Sunni party known as the Iraqi National Dialogue Front, described the confederation of Sunni sheiks as a "very dangerous movement" that is assuming official powers in the absence of a functioning government. "They wanted political cover from our front, but we said no," he said. "We don't mind that they fight al-Qaeda, but any movement should be official, and not tribal, because it will only divide the tribes."

To some degree, the U.S. cooperation with the tribal sheiks is a relationship of last resort. The fighting in Anbar has been among the fiercest in the country since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. Of the more than 3,000 U.S. service members killed in Iraq, 875 died in the province, roughly the size of North Carolina. Dozens of schools and hospitals are closed, and basic services such as electricity and telephones are woefully inadequate. The Americans live at Camp Ramadi amid a desolate expanse of mud: Smoke rises from the burn pit, and crows perch on trash and twisted metal along dirt roads.

This month, the confederation and U.S. officials held what they called the first Ramadi reconstruction conference in the compound of the leader of the Awakening, Abdul Sattar Buzaigh al-Rishawi. The American soldiers parked their Humvees in a gravel lot near some camels and a flock of sheep and left their combat boots on the porch as a sign of respect for the sheiks.

Inside a marble-clad conference hall, Zilmer, the Marine commander, surveyed a carpeted room filled with dozens of men in black-and-gold robes, checkered headdresses and pinstriped suits and pronounced them a "very, very impressive collection of the leadership of Ramadi and al-Anbar province." As if to underscore the local antagonism toward the sheiks, a missile crashed outside the wall of the compound, briefly interrupting Sattar's speech.