European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - June 3, 2007, Darmstadt, Hesse                                June 2007 stars and stripes Page 3 exal Aida in Iraq Leader Abu Musab Alz Aqrawi former iraqi Leader Saddam Hussein Radical shiite cleric Muntada a Sadr multiple enemies complicate Iraq by Drew Brown stars and stripes As insurgents in Iraq were first gaining ground in Spring former defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld dismissed them As a ragtag collection of diehard Saddam Hussein Loyal foreign common criminals and other Deaden two years even As the fighting in Iraq vice president Dick Cheney declared the insurgency to be in its last after More than four years of grinding events in Iraq have forced the Bush administration and military officials to rethink Many of their longstanding assumptions about the nature of the officials now acknowledge that Iraq insurgency has grown More with a greater array of enemies than at any time in the the operational environment in Iraq is the most Complex and challenging i have Ever seen much More Complex than it was when i left last in september and vastly More Complex than what i recall in Central Haiti and the David the top once thought the work of a involves a diverse array commander in said Dur ing a recent Pentagon outside experts agree that the conflict has become More complicated As it has since its inception in the Spring of the nature of the fighting in Iraq has evolved from a struggle Between coalition forces and former regime loyalists to a much More diffuse mix of con involving a number of sunni shiite militias and foreign Anthony Cord a former Pentagon official and longtime Iraq wrote in a report published in april by the Center for strategic and inter National a policy research a unique conflict Frank an analyst with the Center for emerging threats and an internal Marine corps think tank in said there Are least 20 major armed groups in in an essay to be published this summer in the army War col Leges Hoffman argues that the dizzying array of a fuelled by competing strains of religious linked by the internet and operating mostly in Large Urban make Iraq difficult to i think this is a unique conflict that we Are having trouble with said who is also a retired Marine officer and senior fellow at Philadel shias foreign policy research sunni including former Saddam loyalists and Al Aida in an extremist group that emerged after the 2003 Are the biggies As far As threats to former regime supporters want to regain officials but Al Aida in Iraq goal is to foment a crisis Between shia and not take and they want As much disruption As Hoffman in a May 2 speech to building president Bush said Al Aida remains Public enemy 1 in according to the group and associated extremists have come to dominate the sunni their ultimate aim is to reestablish the a theocracy stretching across the Muslim in the the insurgency has created Complex patterns of conflict that have be come a Broad struggle for sectarian and ethnic control of political and economic he wrote in his april the mosque bombing sunni extremists scored their biggest coup with the february 2006 bombing of the Golden mosque in an important shiite the event sparked a wave of sectarian reprisal kill Ings Between shiites and sunnis that has dramatically reshaped the face of the the increase in sectarian Vio Lence in 2006 following the Samar a mosque bombing did enor Mous literally tearing the fabric of iraqi Chang ing the demographics of Baghdad and displacing millions of Petraeus in a review completed last Jan the National Security coun cil warned that with the Spike in sectarian the Center is eroding in with its people growing increasingly disillusioned with coalition in its latest report to see enemy on Page 4 sunni tribesmen turn against Al Aida Monte most stars and stripes an iraqi interpreter working for the 1st brigade combat 3rd infantry do Tom by Monte Morin stars and stripes with friends like who needs ene Mies in what has become the Iraq wars most surprising sunni tribesmen who once traded shots or Laid Roadside bombs against troops in Iraq Western Anbar province have switched allegiances and Are now helping americans Battle islamic Mili the who once hoped that Al Aida in Iraq would help rid them of say they were misled and Dou que Mioni two women during a recent patrol ble crossed by the religious in Sands of tribesmen have now enlisted in the iraqi police Force As Well As a newer paramilitary Force based on tribal the shift began More than six months when Al Aida subjected the clans to a Ruth less Campaign of intimidation and extortion aimed at centralizing their control of the Western the who even under Saddam Hussein were known for their fierce Independence and said they we rent about to take things sitting what has happened Here the destruct the killing has shown what Al Aida said sheikh Abdul the Leader of a tribal federation that is known variously As in downtown Stead of aiding and abetting thou see ramada on Page 7 who your enemy sunni islamist groups Jamaal a Tawhid waa jihad aka monotheism and jihad Alz Aqrawi precursor to Al Aida in Wahhabi Aladist sunni militant group headed by now deceased jordanian terrorist Abu Musab goals drive the military from establish a seventh Cen tur style caliphate based on islamic overturn infidel regimes throughout the Arab world and destroy views shiites As favored tactics suicide beheading and Kidnap claimed responsibility for video execution of Nicolas the assassination of Diplomat Laurence Foley and the bombing of the Headquarters in established 2003 organization of Al Aida in the land of two Rivers aka Al Aida in Lanzim Saidat a jihad i Billad Alz Aqrawi sunni Wahhabi Aladist militant group led by Abu Ayyub who was rumoured killed in Early goals foment sectarian bloodshed through suicide bomb attacks on drive troops from establish a Sev  caliphate based on islamic favored tactics mass casualty attacks and assassinations using foreign suicide bomb chlorine Gas suspected of Many of the deadliest bombings in Iraq including the april 18 bomb attacks in Baghdad that killed More than 200 As Well As the Golden mosque bombing in Samarra on area of operation Cen Iraq Fallu established december 2004 Ansar a sunnah aka Ansar helpers of kurdish group of iraqi kurd and arabs who have vowed to establish an Independent islamic state in works closely with Al Aida in responsible for the Marez dining facility bombing in Mosul on and coordinated suicide bombings in Erbil on of opera Tion Northern and Central Iraq established december 2001 see groups on Page 5