Slain Iraqi sheikh was staunch US ally-colonel

By Andrew Gray

WASHINGTON, Sept 16 (Reuters) - When U.S. Army Col. Sean MacFarland, working in his Pentagon office last Thursday, heard that a tribal leader had been killed in Iraq's Anbar province, his first reaction was: "Please don't let it be Sattar."

His fears proved well-founded. A bomb had killed Abdul Sattar Abu Risha, the founder of a movement of Sunni leaders who turned against al Qaeda in Iraq, who are also Sunnis, and transformed Anbar from one of Iraq's deadliest areas into one of its safest.

MacFarland is in a unique position to offer insights into the movement Sattar led and how it may develop without him. As a brigade commander in Iraq, he was present at the alliance's founding and worked closely with Abu Risha for months.

"I owe him a lot," MacFarland said. "He was a young guy with a great vision of the future and he was a fast friend of the United States."

The movement, known as the Anbar Awakening, was born after a tribal leader from the Sunni Muslim-dominated western desert province was killed by al Qaeda militants in August last year. The province's Sunni leaders were fed up with indiscriminate killings by al Qaeda and their harsh interpretation of Islam.

Abu Risha -- known as Sheikh Sattar to U.S. commanders -- was not regarded as a very prominent local leader at that time, MacFarland said. But his father and two brothers had also been killed by al Qaeda and he seized the moment to unite other sheikhs against the militants.

"He had a really burning hatred for al Qaeda and he saw his chance to get revenge and he took it," MacFarland said.

When MacFarland arrived at Abu Risha's home in the Ramadi area of Anbar in September last year for the founding meeting of the movement, also known as the Anbar Salvation Council, he found a room packed with tribal leaders.

GRASS ROOTS MOVEMENT

"I kind of felt like I was in Independence Hall on July 4, 1776, because this was a real grass roots movement of leading citizens who were willing to stand up and fight for themselves against an oppressor," he said.

After the movement's founding, more and more local leaders would provide members of their tribes for the Iraqi police force to fight alongside U.S. troops against al Qaeda.

U.S. officials now frequently tout Anbar as proof that violence in Iraq can be curbed and the unpopular war can still be won. President George W. Bush visited a U.S. air base in the province this month and met Abu Risha and other sheikhs.

An al Qaeda-led group said on Friday it had killed Abu Risha, according to an Internet posting. The group also vowed to assassinate more tribal leaders who cooperate with U.S. and government forces.

The tribal movement has suffered from internal friction but sheikhs said in the aftermath of the death of Abu Risha, who was believed to have been in his 30s or early 40s, that they would continue the fight against militants.

"Only Sattar could have gotten the Awakening movement started. But now that it's started, I believe that it has enough irreversible momentum behind it that it won't stop without him," MacFarland said.

"But it will change without him because he was a unifying force, so what I think you may see is a bit more decentralization now in the Awakening movement," he said in his Pentagon office on Friday afternoon.

On the wall of the office is a framed letter in Arabic from Abu Risha thanking MacFarland, who served in Anbar as commander of the First Brigade of the U.S. Army's First Armored Division, for his help with the movement.

MacFarland, who now works on Iraq for the U.S. military's Joint Staff, said his heart sank when he heard of his friend's death but hopes he will become even "more powerful in death than in life because now the Awakening movement has a martyr."