3 Diala Sahwa fighters arrested

Diala-Qaeda DIALA / IraqiNews.com: Police forces on Monday arrested three Sahwa fighters in central Baaquba as they suspected of cooperating with al-Qaeda, a police source said. “A force from the emergency police arrested three Sahwa fighters, suspected of cooperating with al-Qaeda, during a security raid in al-Mustapha neighborhood in central Baaquba,” the source told IraqiNews.com. He did not add further details. The Sahwa councils were set up in a number of Iraqi provinces such as al-Anbar, Diala, Ninewa, and Salah al-Din with the aim of bolstering political and local tribal powers to fight armed groups, particularly al-Qaeda network, in those areas. These councils are usually led by tribal chiefs or notables in the provinces. Following the assassination of his father and six of his brothers by al-Qaeda Organization in Iraq in 2004, Sheikh Abdul-Sattar Abu Risha founded the Anbar Sahwa Council and chaired the Iraq Sahwa Congress, an alliance encompassing 42 clans that pledged to fight al-Qaeda members. The Sahwa fighters managed to flush out armed groups from a number of areas once considered strongholds of gunmen for years. Diala province, a mix of Sunnis and Shiites, extends to the northeast of Baghdad as far as the Iranian border. Its capital is Baaquba, 57 km northeast of Baghdad. It covers an area of 17,685 square kilometers (6,828 sq mi). A large portion of the province is drained by the Diala River, a major tributary of the Tigris. Because of its proximity to two major sources of water, Diala’s main industry is agriculture, primarily dates grown in large Date Palm groves. It is also recognized as the orange capital of the Middle East. In January 2008 Operation Phantom Phoenix was launched in an attempt to eradicate the remnants of al-Qaeda network following the Diala province campaign between 2006 and 2007. SH (S)/SR 1