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In the dusty plains of western Iraq, al-Qaida is gaining strength. Daily attacks against US and Iraqi forces are on the rise and there is little sign of progress in convincing the population to support the national government.

US commanders acknowledge they are locked in struggle with insurgents for the allegiance of Iraq's youth.

"We're in a recruiting war with the insurgency," said Brigadier General Robert Neller, the deputy Marine commander in western Iraq.

US commanders have said privately that a military solution to the insurgency in Anbar is impossible, and what is needed is a political deal between the Sunni Arabs and the other religious and ethnic communities.

"This country needs a political solution not a military solution," one government worker told Marines who stopped by his home in Haditha. "Are we going to stay in this situation where you shoot them, they shoot you? We are the victims."

American attention has shifted in recent weeks to Baghdad, where violence between Sunni and Shi'ite extremists is on the rise. The US is sending nearly 12,000 US and Iraqi forces to the capita to curb the violence.

US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad has said sectarian violence in the capital is now a greater threat to Iraq's stability than the Sunni Arab insurgency, which is entrenched in western Iraq.

Nevertheless, of the 23 US troops who have died this month in Iraq, 16 of them were in Anbar.

In Baghdad, US spokesman Major General William Caldwell said Wednesday that al-Qaida was "making a concerted effort to gain legitimacy," by promoting itself as a credible organization "that appeals to Iraqis in desperate social and economic situations while projecting a civic-minded image."

He also said al-Qaida was seeking to build support "from whole tribes rather than individual Iraqi citizens."

On the other hand, US commanders say few insurgents have shown a willingness to meet with them, much less hold meaningful talks.

The top US commander in Haditha went so far as to ask local leaders to spread the word that Marines wanted to know which reconstruction projects would be safe from sabotage. But insurgents never responded.

US troops face similar problems elsewhere in Anbar, a North Carolina-sized province that extends from the western edge of Baghdad to the borders with Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.
 
In Ramadi, the largest city and provincial capital, several prominent tribal leaders who had approached the military earlier this year were promptly slain. Commanders say several key Sunni leaders have fled to Jordan, Syria, and Egypt.

Even in calmer Fallujah, which remains under tight US and Iraqi control, several prominent leaders have been killed including the city council chief, a senior cleric, and deputy police chief. The mayor also recently fled the city.

The war has eroded the quality of life for hundreds of thousands of Sunni Arabs, many of whom have been steadily abandoning the area. In the cluster of riverside homes that make up Haditha, Haqlaniyah and Parwana, US commanders estimate that about two-thirds of the population have fled their homes since the beginning of the war.

"The situation is starting to go from bad to worse, from worse to worst," said one government official in Haditha who asked that his name not be used for fear of reprisal.
 
(China Daily August 17, 2006)