Iraqi Insurgent Groups Turn on al-Qaeda

Insurgent groups that once killed U.S. troops are now allying themselves with their former enemy and against a common foe - al-Qaeda in Iraq.

Fox News reports, "Hundreds of fighters from the 1920s Revolution Brigades, a Sunniinsurgent group, work as scouts and gather intelligence for the 10,000-strong American force in the fifth day of its mission to remove al-Qaeda gunmen and bomb makers from the Diyala provincial capital."

Fox News goes on to say, "The informants have given the American troops exact coordinates of suspected Al Qaeda safe houses, with details down to the color of the gate out front, said Lt. Col. Avanulas Smiley, 40, commander of the 1st Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment and a Tacoma, Wash., native."

Most of the Brigades members, whom U.S. officials call "concerned local nationals," hail from eastern Baqouba, while the bulk of the fighting has so far raged in western Baqouba. But with contacts among fellow Sunni fighters on the city's west side, they have fed American soldiers critical information about Al Qaeda positions."

This turn of sides is not new. Senior U.S. commanders told CNN last week,"U.S. forces have begun arming nationalist guerrillas and former Saddam Hussein loyalists -- and coordinating tactics -- in a marriage of convenience against al Qaeda radicals in one of Iraq's most violent provinces."

"The Sunni insurgency in Iraq is splitting, with loyalists to the old Baathist regime now fighting al-Qaida-backed Islamists. Could it be a turning point in the country's civil war?" reports Spiegel Online.

Is this chance? fortune? or is it a reasonable evolution of strategy by the U.S.? All indications point to some real strategy at work.

The switch begs the question - why? One insurgent commander sheds light in the Fox News report - "We do not kill police or army members, or call for their killing," he said. "Al Qaeda threatened us for taking this stance. ... They began to kidnap and kill our fighters, so ... we began to fight back."