Ambushing al Qaeda in Iraq

AP/Boston Globe:

Former Sunni insurgents asked the United States to stay away, and then ambushed members of Al Qaeda in Iraq, killing 18 in a battle that raged for hours north of Baghdad, an ex-insurgent leader and Iraqi police said yesterday.

The Islamic Army in Iraq sent advance word to Iraqi police requesting that US helicopters keep out of the area because its fighters had no uniforms and were indistinguishable from Al Qaeda, according to the police and a top Islamic Army leader known as Abu Ibrahim.

Abu Ibrahim said his fighters killed 18 Al Qaeda militants and captured 16 in the fight southeast of Samarra, a mostly Sunni city about 60 miles north of Baghdad.

"We found out that Al Qaeda intended to attack us, so we ambushed them at 3 p.m. on Friday," Abu Ibrahim said. He would not say whether any Islamic Army members were killed.

Much of the Islamic Army in Iraq, a major Sunni Arab insurgent group that includes former members of Saddam Hussein's Ba'ath Party, has joined the US-led fight against Al Qaeda in Iraq along with Sunni tribesmen and other former insurgents repelled by the terror group's brutality and extremism.

An Iraqi police officer corroborated Abu Ibrahim's account, but said police officers were not able to verify the number of casualties because the area was still too dangerous to enter.

Before the battle, the insurgent commander personally contacted Iraqi police in Samarra to tell them his plans, according to the officer and Abu Ibrahim. He asked that Iraqi authorities inform the American military about his plans, and requested that no US troops interfere, they said.

The US military said yesterday that it had no record of American troops ever being informed about the operation, and it was unclear whether Iraqi police followed through on Abu Ibrahim's request.

The police officer said the Al Qaeda captives would not be transferred to Iraqi police.

Instead, he said, he believed the Islamic Army would offer a prisoner swap for some of its members held by Al Qaeda. The officer spoke on condition of anonymity because of the situation's sensitivity.

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It appears that the Islamic Army in Iraq has pretty good intelligence on al Qaeda's operational plans if they were able to ambush them as they moved to contact. It would also appear that they are trying to work with the Iraqi police. Whether you look at this as just another red on red action or not it does highlight what a hostile environment al Qaeda is now operating in in Iraq. That is a good thing. The Guardian has more on the leader of the Islamic Army.