From The Peninsula
- Qatar's Leading English Daily -
SAMARRA: Hundreds of Iraqis staged a demonstration in the restive city of Samarra yesterday in a show of defiance against Al Qaeda militants they blamed for killing dozens of police recruits last week.
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The protesters, estimated by police to number 700 to 1,000 and organised by the Iraqi Islamic Party and Muslim Scholars Association, major forces in Sunni politics, accused Al Qaeda of killing some 40 local men who were hauled off a bus near Samarra last week after leaving a police academy in Baghdad and killed. The killing late last year of the head of one of the city�s main tribal leaders had prompted an alliance against Al Qaeda involving local nationalist insurgents, residents said, similar to movements seen in other Sunni strongholds.
"They should not target civilians," said one local militant who says he speaks for a nationalist insurgent group in Samarra and goes by the name of Abu Mohammed.
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After last week's killing of the police recruits, one resident said: "They will not allow Qaeda members to operate in Samarra any more ... They want to put pressure on them to leave. If need be, they may start killing known al Qaeda members."
prying1 sez: I've always wondered why the Al Qaeda thought murdering people was going to make the masses want to embrace their cause. This, I believe, is a real sign of the Iraqi people coming to realize their independence.
(for readability I changed some punctuation in the quotes. ?'s to "'s)
Hat tip to AubreyJ for the link! -
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