More Trouble on the Duleimi Family Front

Talisman Gate provides some fascinating linkages regarding the recent killing of Riyadh al-Samarrai, a former police colonel, in Baghdad's northern Azamiyah district, which had been a stronghold of insurgents and a safe haven for al-Qaida in Iraq until recently when Al Samarrai switched sides and begin to work with US Forces. Yahoo explains the assassination this way.

The head of a key U.S.-backed Sunni group was killed Monday in a double suicide bombing that claimed at least 11 other lives and highlighted the deadly precision of attacks on Sunni leaders choosing to oppose al-Qaida in Iraq.... The first bomber approached Riyadh al-Samarrai, a former police colonel and head of the local Awakening Council, and claimed to be a friend, said one of al-Samarrai's bodyguards, who was wounded in the attack. "He met him and embraced him and after a few seconds, the explosion took place," the guard said from his bed in al-Nuaman hospital. He spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals. As people rushed to aid the wounded, a suicide car bomb exploded just yards away, said Baghdad's chief military spokesman, Brig. Qassim al-Moussawi.

Therefore, al-Samarrai knew and trusted the suicide bomber that killed him. According to Talisman Gate,

Fresh charges were leveled today against Adnan al-Duleimi, the head of parliamentary Consensus bloc (Sunni) and his daughter and fellow parliamentarian Asma al-Duleimi by the latter's head of security, Hassanein Ghazi Karim al-Samaraie. Al-Samaraie was arrested two days ago in connection to the car bombs found at Duleimi's compound that had earlier implicated Makki al-Duleimi, Adnan's son and Asma's brother, who has been under custody for several weeks now. According to his testimony today, al-Samaraie claimed that he had been Asma's lover and that both she and her father had prior knowledge about a string of car bombings in the Hai al-'Amil neighborhood that al-Samaraie had organized and confessed to. As if things couldn't get any weirder for this family, a source is telling me that Asma's husband died today in the Adhamiya suicide bombing that targeted and killed Col. Riyadh al-Samaraie, the head of the 'Adhamiya Rebels Command that was formed about a month ago to fight al-Qaeda. However I can't verify this last bit about the husband.

However, looking at the first comment to this blog, one sees,

Yet another scoop for Talisman Gate; Asma Duleimi today confirmed the news to Radio Sawa that her husband, Dhiya al-Hadithi was killed in the Adhamiya bombing yesterday... http://www.radiosawa.com/arabic_news.aspx?id=1480991 Unfortunately, this article is in arabic so I cannot confirm the text.

Interesting linkages to say the least. What is to me more significant is a phenomenon that is occurring that is not being reported, namely, tribal and family ties are becoming less important in Iraq than is the sense of Iraqi nationalism with regards to the developing democracy.

Tribal and family lineages have been the basic building block in Iraq. It is what has started the bottom up reconciliation.

Another way to look at it is unlike Americans who first and foremost say they are Americans, then may later say they are Irish-American noting their ancestory, and then later say they are from Casper, Wyoming, noting where they grew up, and then from the north side of town, Iraqis start just the opposite way.

They are first from the Al-Azzawi family living in Baqaba, which is part of the larger Al-Azza tribe in the Diyala province which is part of the larger Al-Azza tribe in the central part of Iraq. Finally they are Iraqis. To put it simply, Iraqis base their heritage from bottom up, Americans from top down (which was one of our issues in understanding Iraqis during our first few years in Iraq).

However, we now see that a friend of Col. Riyadh al-Samaraie attack and kill him. While the suicide bomber has not been identified, he was undoubtedly from the same tribe, if not the same family if he was allowed to get so close without being searched first.

Similarly, Col. Riyadh al-Samaraie had decided to switch sides, while his wife and apparently her lover, Hassanein Ghazi Karim al-Samaraie, had stayed allied to Al Qaeda. It is not know whether Hassanein Ghazi Karim al-Samaraie was related to Col. Riyadh al-Samaraie or not, but I bet there is some type of relationship here. The estrangement from the wife may have very well be a result of Col. Riyadh al-Samaraie switching sides.

Another recent suicide bomber had the same modus operandi during the funeral of Nabil al-Azzawi in which his father, Muataz al-Azzawi was assassinated.

Zahil said the funeral took place at the home of Muataz al-Azzawi, a former brigadier general in the Iraqi police who subsequently worked at the police sports club. The bomber was a man known by the relatives of the deceased, Zahil said. "When the suicide bomber got inside the funeral, he shook hands with everybody," he said. "When he arrived at Muataz, he blew himself up."

The reason I brought up the Al-Azza tribe earlier, is because there are many members of this tribe and/or family who have in the past or are still supporting Al Qaeda while other members have switched sides and are now fighting against Al Qaeda. The Ansar al-Sunna Emir of Diyala, Abu Shahad al-‘Azzawi a year ago killed many Iraqi Security Forces in December 2006 is one of many examples. It appears Al-Azza tribal members to some extent are still loyal to AL Qaeda in the Diyala province while members of the same tribe have switched to the American side.

Al Qaeda is using this break in family and tribal alliance to its advantage by getting family, tribemen, or or old friends in close enough to anti-Al Qaeda leaders to assassinate them.

Americans for their part need to understand that tribal alliances are becoming less significant in Iraq. Iraqi nationalism is growing stronger at the expense of old tribal relationships and US forces need to use this to their advantage. It is the focus on destroying Al Qaeda which is causing these tribal alliances to break down since Iraqis (of all nationalities and tribes) are coming together to destroy a common enemy. To the point, Iraqis are once again becoming nationalistic which is a fundamental change from 2004 through 2007 when tribal relationships were at their peak.

This phenonemon is also happening at the national level as seen by Maliki, a member of the Dawa party forming alliances with Sunni and Kurds to build a national unity government while at the same time the Dawa party is breaking apart and forming another party which sides with Al-Sadr's block.

One of the key aspects of war is to divide and conquer. It appears that significant divisions are happening in Iraq, at the family level, the tribal level, and also at the national level. US forces needs to capitalize on these fractures to help create a nationalistic Iraqi identity that believes in freedom and democracy.