Reply #23: You do realize that article is from 2004? Things have changed a little since then. [View All]

[wmbrew0206]

The majority of AQI left in Iraq right now are foreign fighters.

Up until the Awakening, there were two separate Sunni insurgencies: Local Iraqis and AQI. They sometimes work together and other times fought each other. Once the Awakening happened the local Sunni Tribes started working with the US to fight AQI, who was worse in the eyes of the local Iraqis. Once this happened, AQI was denied its largest pool of recruits (local Iraqis) and lost a lot of safe heavens to work out of.

Now the majority of the JAM militias fighting the government are local Shias.