THE SPREADING CIVIL WAR:

U.S. Warplanes Back Unprecedented Sunni-Led Offensive: Fierce Fighting in Growing Rift Between Zarqawi Insurgents and Sunni Arab Tribes (Ellen Knickmeyer and Omar Fekeiki, August 30, 2005, Washington Post)

U.S. warplanes backed Sunni Arab tribal fighters on Tuesday in what tribal leaders called an unprecedented Sunni-led offensive to drive out Abu Musab Zarqawi's forces.

Three days of ongoing fighting in towns near the Syrian border killed at least 61 people, at least 56 of them Tuesday, said Dr. Ali Rawi, emergency-room director at the hospital in the largest city near the fighting, Qaim, about 200 miles northwest of Baghdad.

Forty-two of them wore the black training-suits and athletic shoes favored by Zarqawi's fighters, Rawi said.

Others appeared to be fighters of a rival tribe or civilians, he said.

Tuesday's bombings and clashes in the towns of Husaybah and Karabilah marked some of the fiercest fighting yet in a growing rift between Zarqawi's insurgents and some tribes of their Sunni Arab base.

The clashes came after insurgents kidnapped and killed 31 men belonging to the Albu Mahal tribe because they had joined the Iraqi security forces, said Sheikh Muhammed Mahallawi, one of the tribe's leaders.

"We decided, either we force them out of the city or kill them," with the support of U.S. bombardment, Mahallawi said.

Fitting that Zarqawi's guys adopted the Heaven's Gate dress code.

Posted by Orrin Judd at August 30, 2005 2:38 PM