(Washington Post) Karl Vick - Local insurgents in the Iraqi city of Fallujah are turning against the foreign fighters who have been their allies against the U.S. Relations are deteriorating as local fighters negotiate to avoid a U.S.-led military offensive against Fallujah, while foreign fighters press to attack Americans and their Iraqi supporters. Fallujans have killed at least five foreign Arabs in recent weeks, according to witnesses. Several local leaders of the insurgency say they want to expel the foreigners, whom they scorn as terrorists. They heap particular contempt on Abu Musab Zarqawi, the Jordanian whose Monotheism and Jihad group has asserted responsibility for many of the deadliest attacks across Iraq, including videotaped beheadings. "He is mentally deranged, has distorted the image of the resistance and defamed it. I believe his end is near," said Abu Abdalla Dulaimy, military commander of the First Army of Mohammad. Residents say foreign fighters have gathered in Fallujah's commercial district after being denied shelter in residential neighborhoods because their presence so often attracts U.S. warplanes. People in Fallujah, known as the city of mosques, have chafed at the stern brand of Islam that the newcomers brought with them. The non-Iraqi Arabs berated women who did not cover themselves head-to-toe in black - very rare in Iraq.
2004-10-13 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive