IRAQ:Iraq's Shia prime minister Nuri al-Maliki travelled to the city of Ramadi yesterday on his first visit to the heartland of Sunni Arab insurgents fighting his US- backed government.
Mr Maliki, who flew aboard a US military helicopter and was accompanied by his interior and defence ministers, met tribal leaders, local government officials and Iraqi army commanders on his highly symbolic trip.
In a gesture apparently aimed at reconciling Sunnis and Shias, Mr Maliki pledged to restore services in the vast province of Anbar, scene of a four-year-old rebellion.
Dominant under Saddam Hussein, Sunni Arabs are deeply mistrustful of majority Shias. They fear the Shia empowerment following US-sponsored elections will seal their political and economic doom. Many Ramadi residents said they hoped the prime minister's visit would improve the situation. "We hope he brings us security and stability," said teacher Ahmed Hussein Ali (35).
Mr Maliki, who has called for national reconciliation to end a war that has killed tens of thousands of Iraqis, praised local tribesmen engaged in a power struggle with al-Qaeda militants in Anbar, west of Baghdad.
"We ask the prime minister to help the people in Anbar to root out the terrorists," said Fawaz Khalaf, a retired civil servant. "His visit comes at a time that demands co-operation from the government."
Iraqi and US troops patrolled the streets and a vehicle curfew was imposed in the city where a truck bomb blamed on al-Qaeda killed 52 people last month.
Several thousand of the 26,000 US troops being sent to Iraq will reinforce Anbar, the deadliest area for American forces in Iraq.
In Baghdad, more than 100,000 US and Iraqi troops are being deployed to avert all-out sectarian civil war.
Mr Maliki met local government officials and Sattar al- Buzayi, a Sunni sheikh and leader of the tribal alliance against al-Qaeda. Iraqi and US officials have encouraged Sunni tribesmen to band together against Sunni al-Qaeda in the province.
The traditionally minded tribal leaders oppose the militant group's plan to impose an Islamic caliphate, and the two sides have fought battles along the length of the Euphrates valley from Falluja to the Syrian border.- ( Reuters )