Anbar Sheik Cited By McCain Was Assassinated Last Year

The major Sunni sheik who John McCain said was protected by the surge and subsequently helped lead the Anbar Awakening, was actually assassinated by an al-Qaeda led group in midst of the surge.

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Originally Posted by Finny Look I don't agree with the Iraq War.. but Liberals do not understand Military Planning at all or facts.

CNN Political Ticker: All politics, all the time Blog Archive - McCain makes Iraq gaffe - Blogs from CNN.com

(CNN) — Barack Obama's campaign is seizing on a incorrect assertion by rival John McCain that the surge of troops in Iraq was responsible for spurring the so-called "Anbar Awakening" — in which Sunni leaders stepped up their efforts to battle Al Qaeda operatives.

The McCain campaign responded that Democrats are attempting to diminish the role U.S. troops have played in stabilizing the country over the last 18 months.

McCain's initial comments came in an interview with CBS Tuesday night, during with the Arizona senator was asked about Obama's argument that a Sunni revolt against Al-Qaeda and the addition of U.S. troops both played a vital role in diminishing violence in the country.

DefenseLink News Transcript: DoD News Briefing with Col. Sean B. MacFarland from Iraq

With respect to the violence between the Sunnis and the al Qaeda -- actually, I would disagree with the assessment that the al Qaeda have the upper hand. That was true earlier this year when some of the sheikhs began to step forward and some of the insurgent groups began to fight against al Qaeda. The insurgent groups, the nationalist groups, were pretty well beaten by al Qaeda.

This is a different phenomena that's going on right now. I think that it's not so much the insurgent groups that are fighting al Qaeda, it's the -- well, it used to be the fence-sitters, the tribal leaders, are stepping forward and cooperating with the Iraqi security forces against al Qaeda, and it's had a very different result. I think al Qaeda has been pushed up against the ropes by this, and now they're finding themselves trapped between the coalition and ISF on the one side, and the people on the other.

Slain Iraqi sheikh was staunch US ally-colonel | Reuters

The movement, known as the Anbar Awakening, was born after a tribal leader from the Sunni Muslim-dominated western desert province was killed by al Qaeda militants in August last year. The province's Sunni leaders were fed up with indiscriminate killings by al Qaeda and their harsh interpretation of Islam.

Abu Risha -- known as Sheikh Sattar to U.S. commanders -- was not regarded as a very prominent local leader at that time, MacFarland said. But his father and two brothers had also been killed by al Qaeda and he seized the moment to unite other sheikhs against the militants.

"He had a really burning hatred for al Qaeda and he saw his chance to get revenge and he took it," MacFarland said.

BBC NEWS | Middle East | Obituary: Abdul Sattar Abu Risha

Sheikh Abdul Sattar Abu Risha was a key Sunni Arab ally of the US and Iraqi governments in Iraq's western Anbar province.

The 37-year-old leader of the Al Bu Risha tribe was killed in a bomb attack near his home in the provincial capital, Ramadi, on Thursday.

He was reportedly a top target for assassination by al-Qaeda in Iraq, whom he is widely credited with having defeated in much of western Iraq.

alJazeera Magazine - Abu Reesha’s murder deals major blow to the U.S.

President George Bush wouldn’t be able to maintain his claim that Iraq’s security is improving, especially in the Sunni-dominated Anbar province, after last week’s brutal assassination of one of the key U.S. allies in the war-torn country, Sheikh Abdul Sattar Abu Reesha.

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According to the BBC, Ahmed Abu Reesha has been named as the tribal group's new leader after the death of his brother. He said after his appointment that “all the tribes agreed to fight al-Qaeda until the last child in Anbar."

Last week, the U.S. hailed the tribesmen success when U.S. military officer Major Lee Peters told AFP that since the end of March there had been 110 days of "zero attacks" in Ramadi, compared to nearly 25 to 30 attacks a day between January and March.

And on September 3, President Bush shook hands with Abu Reesha and told U.S. troops that the success in Anbar could lead to a reduction in troop numbers in Iraq.