Sunni tribes of Iraq's rebel bastion declare war on Zarqawi

0 Comments | AFP, March, 2006

HAWIJAH, Iraq (AFP) — Faced with attacks against their sheikhs and clan members, a number of Sunni tribes from Hawijah -- a rebel bastion in northern Iraq -- have declared war on Al-Qaeda's frontman in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

"We shall fight all those who commit such attacks, notably Al-Qaeda," the tribal leaders said in a statement that has been circulating around Hawijah

In the last month-and-a-half, the head of Al-Nuaim tribe, Ibrahim Al-Nuaimi, and one of the heads of the powerful Jubur tribe, Ahmad Mehdi Saleh, have been assassinated in this Sunni rebel bastion, 220 kilometers (137 miles) north of Baghdad.

Khaled Abdel Hussein, a doctor at Hawijah's general hospital, was also killed by armed men who barged into the hospital building and sprayed it...