Shift in Tactics Aims to Revive Struggling Insurgency

"He was discouraged and asked his emir to transfer him to another district," the emir wrote to senior leaders in the 49-page letter, of which four full pages and other excerpts were provided to The Post by U.S. military officials. "His request was denied."

The letter said Muhammad was eventually summoned to carry out a small raid on a local "apostate resident," only to be shot in the arm. U.S. troops later found the village in which Muhammad was hiding and surrounded it. "He was killed by a sniper and died," the letter says.

The emir said potential suicide bombers were told by coordinators on the border that they could choose a suicide mission, which would kill 20 to 30 U.S.-led troops or their supporters, the letter says.

Yet a would-be bomber would then wait in the desert for months. "At the end he will be asked to do a small operation, such as murdering someone or blowing up a police car," the emir wrote. The foreigners would then become discouraged, he said, and return to their home countries.

The letter, which referred to the situation in Anbar as an "exceptional crisis," was found in an al-Qaeda in Iraq safe house in Samarra, about 65 miles north of Baghdad, along with a half-dozen hard drives, thumb drives and more than 100 CDs and DVDs of material from the group, U.S. officials said. The authenticity of the document could not be independently confirmed.

In the letter, the emir said the difficulty in assigning tasks to potential suicide bombers was caused by increases in U.S. military operations and the formation of U.S.-backed Sunni tribal groups, known as Awakening councils, to fight against al-Qaeda in Iraq.

"We found ourselves in a circle not being able to move, organize or conduct our operations," he wrote. "There was a total collapse in the security structure of the organization."

'Do Not Interfere in Social Issues'

The communique from Muhajer that appeared in some mosques in Anbar last month began with a typical al-Qaeda in Iraq rally-the-troops decree.

"Strike hard at the enemies and intensify your operations against the occupiers," it said. "Cut off their communications by blowing up the towers and the land telephone exchanges and destroy the bridges and the important highways which they use."

But the communique also shifted away from long-standing al-Qaeda in Iraq policies. "Do not interfere in social issues such as head covering, the satellite and other social affairs which are against our religion until further notice," Muhajer wrote.

"Do take care not to kill Sunni civilians that did not sympathize with the apostates such as tribesmen," Muhajer wrote, referring to Sunnis in the U.S.-backed forces.

The authenticity of the communique, which was not posted on major insurgent Web sites as many of the group's messages are, was confirmed by Lehebi, who said it was meant to be an internal order. U.S. intelligence officials said they had not been previously aware of the communique.

Reclaiming the support of local Sunnis may prove to be a significant challenge for al-Qaeda in Iraq.

Ahmed al-Issawi, a spokesman for the Fatwa Council in Fallujah, said that the group of clerics issued a religious decree, or fatwa, on Jan. 17 that for the first time declared civilians killed by al-Qaeda in Iraq to be martyrs. "Al-Qaeda has killed hundreds of people in Iraq unfairly," he said bitterly.

At a checkpoint just south of Fallujah, Nadim Kaffi, a 44-year-old Awakening member, said al-Qaeda in Iraq was not nearly as close to the people as the Awakening councils.

"Al-Qaeda is almost done and finished. It no longer scares anyone," he said. "It is like an old man on the verge of his grave."

A Washington Post special correspondent in Anbar province contributed to this report.