Anti-al-Qaida Alliance Forming

Reuters reports that "U.S. and Iraqi officials are in contact with representatives of some Sunni Arab insurgent groups to build an alliance against al-Qaida in Iraq, the outgoing U.S. ambassador said Monday.

Zalmay Khalilzad also said he was cautiously optimistic that “success is possible” in Iraq, but urged leaders to act fast if they were to maintain the support of the impatient U.S. people amid growing pressure for a timetable to withdraw troops."

“One of the main challenges is how to separate more and more groups away from al-Qaida, how to turn them to cooperate with the Iraqi government against al-Qaida,” he said. “That is the strategic objective.”