Anbar tribes and US have big day against al Qaeda

Reuters/Washington Post:

The head of a tribal council in Iraq's western province of Anbar said on Sunday that tribesmen had killed 55 al Qaeda fighters in a battle on Saturday, but the U.S. military could not confirm the figures.

The death toll, if confirmed, would mark an unusually fierce clash with insurgents in a province where U.S. forces regularly battle foreign fighters they say are linked to al Qaeda and other Sunni insurgents.

The U.S. military said in a statement it launched air strikes and fired artillery to help a tribe in the town of Sofia after an attack by al Qaeda.

...

Sattar al-Buzayi, head of the Anbar Salvation Council, an umbrella group of tribes in Anbar, a vast Sunni province in the west of Iraq, said tribal fighters had raided an al Qaeda stronghold and killed 55 militants and arrested 25. He said nine tribal fighters were killed in the clash.
Note the skepticism in this report and compare it to the compliant acceptance of reports of mayhem in Baghdad. The Anbar report is a turn around from the previous reports of hopelessness in that province. It also suggest a move to the strategic offensive from the ractionary posture that the US has previously had.

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