Insurgents form political front to plan for US pullout

Leaders of Iraqi groups say attacks will go on until Americans leave

Seumas Milne in Damascus
Thursday July 19, 2007
The Guardian

"Seven of the most important Sunni-led insurgent organisations fighting the US occupation in Iraq have agreed to form a public political alliance with the aim of preparing for negotiations in advance of an American withdrawal, their leaders have told the Guardian.

In their first interview with the western media since the US-British invasion of 2003, leaders of three of the insurgent groups - responsible for thousands of attacks against US and Iraqi armed forces and police - made clear that they would continue their armed resistance until all foreign troops were withdrawn from Iraq, and denounced al-Qaida for sectarian killings and suicide bombings against civilians.....

Leaders of the three groups - who did not use their real names in the interview - said the new front, which brings together all the main Sunni-based armed organisations except al-Qaida and the Ba'athists, has agreed the main planks of a joint political programme, including a commitment to free Iraq from all foreign trooops, rejection of any cooperation with parties involved in the political institutions set up under the occupation and a declaration that all decisions and agreements made by the US occupation and Iraqi government are null and void......

Central to the new alliance - which also includes the powerful Jaish al-Islami, Jami (the Iraqi Resistance Islamic Front), Jaish al-Mujahideen and Jaish al-Rashideen - is opposition to the murderous sectarianism that has gripped Iraq under occupation, and the role of al-Qaida in particular.

All three Sunni-based resistance leaders say they are acutely aware of the threat posed by sectarian division to the future of Iraq and emphasised the importance of working with Shia groups - but rejected any link with the Shia militia and parties because of their participation in the political institutions set up by the Americans and their role in sectarian killings....."