BAGHDAD, Iraq – A prominent tribal chief in Iraq’s Anbar province claimed that weapons supplied to a Sunni militia to fight Islamic State militants are instead being sold off in Syria.
Qasim al-Karwali, leader of the Tribes Revolution, accused Ahmad Aburish, head of the Awakening Council, of the illegal arms sales to opposition and government forces Syria. Aburish denied the accusations.
The Iraqi government and US army created the Sunni Awakening Council in 2006 to drive out al-Qaeda forces from Anbar, Iraq’s largest province.
Since then Baghdad has maintained some level of ties with Aburish’s council, arming and funding them to win their allegiance against radical Sunni groups.
Aburish denied the accusations, calling them “an attempt to stop our arms supplies to fight the armed groups.”
“Armed groups, especially the IS try to distort public opinion against the Awakening Council by saying that we are selling our weapons to Syria,” Aburish told Rudaw. “These are baseless accusations.”
In recent years, Anbar’s Sunni population have accused leaders of the Awakening Council of collaboration with Iraq’s Shiite government at the expense of local grievances.
The accusations made by al-Karwali on Tuesday come at a time when the US and other NATO countries have pledged support to Iraqi groups who fight the Islamic State.
Al-Karwali said he feared any weapons supplied by the West or Haider al-Abadi’s government to the Awakening Council will be sold in the black market by its leaders.
In the past two years, Sunni tribes in Anbar have split into two camps. Al-Karwali’s group has vowed to stand against the government until Sunni grievances are addressed. Other tribes, such as Aburish’s, have sided with Baghdad.
This split is also reflected in the army and police, where some still fight for the government while others take orders from their tribal chiefs.
Aburish said that the IS and other rival tribes try to drive a wedge between the Iraqi government, the international community and the Sunni tribes fighting terrorism.
Aburish’s council has been the target of many attacks from insurgent groups, surviving several assassination attempts over the past few years.
