The death of a key Sunni ally of the United States in Iraq has had a huge impact there as well as the wider Arab world.
Abdul Sattar Abu Risha, 37, led the "Anbar Awakening", an alliance of Sunni Arab tribes that rose up against al Qaeda in
Iraq.
He was killed yesterday in a bomb attack in the city of Ramadi.
There was a sense of shock among many, especially the country's Sunni community at the death of the young chain-smoking sheikh, who met US President George W. Bush in Iraq last week.
Ali Hatem al-Sulaiman, deputy chief of the Anbar province's biggest Sunni tribe, said that if "only one small boy remains alive in Anbar, we will not hand the province over to al Qaeda".
But messages were being posted on international jihadist websites exulting at the end of "the traitor and apostate". One called him "one of the biggest pigs of the Crusaders".
The killing took place on the first day of the holy month of Ramadan and on the eve of the first anniversary of the founding of the Anbar Salvation Council, a tribal alliance led by the sheikh, which had been battling al Qaeda fighters in the western province with some success. Yesterday, Anbar was under a state of emergency with the routes to Jordan and Syria closed down and US reinforcements on standby to be airlifted to the area.
The attack on the sheikh was followed by a car bombing in Baghdad, the first in the capital for more than a week, killing four people and injuring 12 others, leading to fears of an escalation of violence during Ramadan.
Abu Risha's critics accused him of corruption, sectarianism and using government money to run his own private army.
- Independent
