Iraqi tribes unite in bid to fight insurgency

TRIBES in one of Iraq’s most volatile provinces have joined together to fight the insurgency in their region, calling on the government and the US-led military coalition to give them weapons, a prominent tribal leader said.

Tribal leaders and clerics in Ramadi, the capital of the violent Anbar province, met last week and have set up a force of about 20,000 men “ready to purge the city of these infidels”, Sheikh Fassal al-Guood, a prominent tribal leader from Ramadi, said.

“People are fed up with the acts of those criminals who take Islam as a cover for their crimes,” he said.