Betrayed, one brother is killed by Al Qaeda in Iraq. But more tribesmen then join the fight to take back towns
Reporting from Baghdad — Disgusted by the insurgency he once wholeheartedly supported, Abu Maarouf started his revolt against Al Qaeda in Iraq with four men under his command, including his brother.
They acted as a hit squad, assassinating leaders of Al Qaeda in Iraq. They planned at night, tracked the men and then killed them during the day, their faces disguised with kaffiyehs.
"It’s not right to let strangers from outside Iraq govern us. Those who don’t fight Al Qaeda have no honor," Abu Maarouf said. "I told them a man should not wear his aqal [headband] if he doesn’t fight Qaeda."
Ahmed was shot with a machine gun and then driven to the edge of a murky green canal 200 yards from Abu Maarouf’s home. He was finished off with a razor to the throat. The family picked up the bloodied body and went to a nearby village, where Abu Maarouf and his father spoke to tribal leaders.
"It’s not right to let strangers from outside Iraq govern us. Those who don’t fight Al Qaeda have no honor," Abu Maarouf said. "I told them a man should not wear his aqal [headband] if he doesn’t fight Qaeda."
After the burial, they planned new attacks against Al Qaeda. Word traveled and fighters loyal to Al Qaeda lay multiple roadside bombs for them and planned an ambush with rocket-propelled grenades and machine-gun fire. A passerby warned them, and they turned back. Abu Maarouf said he went into hiding for 50 days, until he received the blessing of leaders from his Zobaie tribe to liberate the area.
He came back with seven men, including two of his sons, and 11 more from Anbar province. With backing from sheiks, they won back three towns in three weeks. Soon, Abu Maarouf forged alliances with tribesmen and old military contacts in the Abu Ghraib region to take back more villages.
"When we started working, it was for the Iraqi people. We didn’t differentiate between Shiite and Sunni," he said at his home. "It was for God."
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