New Paths to Power Emerge in Iraq

In June 2007, Khalil turned against his allies, declaring war from his mosque.

"Al-Qaeda must depart, or face from us what they may not expect," he recalled saying. "Throw them out of our villages. Have no mercy on them, whether young or old."

Three times, al-Qaeda in Iraq loyalists tried to kill him. On Oct. 19 that year, they planted a bomb under his chair in the mosque, injuring 136 worshipers. Khalil suffered 30 wounds that left dark scars on his left arm and left leg. But within a few months, working with the U.S. military, police and men who deserted al-Qaeda in Iraq for an American-backed militia of former fighters, Khalil crippled the group. Residents estimate that 80 of its men were arrested and 70 others were killed -- 50 by the U.S. military and 20 by police. Only a dozen or so fighters remain, haunting the gardens and farms around the town.

In his own estimation, Khalil was the last man standing.

He has shaved his beard, its wispiness once indicative of his youth. In a reception room painted soft pink, he unabashedly displays a picture of himself with a sniper rifle, surrounded by Iraqi security forces, former insurgents turned American allies and a U.S. soldier, smiling broadly. To visitors, always gracious, he speaks with the fervor of the converted.

"I have a new company," he declared.

Smiling, he added, "You can't bring the Neanderthal to live in a globalized age."

But he still calls himself an Islamist, and to his followers, his words remain harsh.

"Our country is occupied and our bodies are torn apart, but we shouldn't forget our families in Palestine," he proclaimed in a sermon recently to an overflow crowd in his austere mosque, its white walls gouged by shrapnel from his assassination attempt.

"Those sons of monkeys, enemies of God and killers of prophets," he declared, his voice rising in denunciation of Jews, "are killing our brothers and sisters in Palestine."

A Void After Hussein

Under Hussein, Thuluyah enjoyed the perks of patronage and loyalty. Some residents estimate that as many as 90 percent of the townspeople were Baath Party members, a fourth of them employed by the army, government or intelligence service.

That world crumbled in April 2003. The tribes -- powerful clans with the names of Jabbouri, Khazraji, Ubaidi and Bufarraj -- filled the void for a while, then made way for insurgent groups and eventually al-Qaeda in Iraq. Its departure left a contested landscape, in which the government, represented by no more than 70 soldiers, is a bit player.