Anti-Quaeda Protest in Iraq, Local Anger Mounts

[Charlie Brown]

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/KAR442735.htm

SAMARRA, Iraq, Jan 24 (Reuters) - Hundreds of Iraqis staged a demonstration in the restive city of Samarra on Tuesday in a show of defiance against al Qaeda militants they blamed for killing dozens of police recruits last week.

Nationalist rebels and tribal leaders in the city north of Baghdad had already let it be known they were joining forces to try to expel the foreign-influenced Islamists from the area, part of a trend in Sunni Arab areas that U.S. commanders have pointed to optimistically as a sign of political development.

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.

[NanceGreggs]

1. So in other words ...

... it's all going REAL GOOD over there, eh?

[Vogon_Glory]

2. More Like They Hate Us in Samarra, BUT--

It looks more like the folks in Samarra still hate the occupation, but they also have serious issues with al Qaeda.

Having neighbors and fellow tribe and clan members butchered does tend to rile folks over there.