Cleric lends voice to coalition

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By Richard Tomkins

AD DULUYIAH, Iraq

A charismatic cleric who once led al Qaeda in Iraq's media wing has joined with U.S. and Iraqi forces to stamp out the organization to which he once pledged loyalty. His name is Mullah Najim Mahmoud Khalil al Jabouri. When not giving anti- al Qaeda sermons and leading prayers at Ad Duluyiah's Khlafa mosque, he's coordinating the activities of Sons of Iraq security groups, participating in efforts to reconcile insurgents with the government, and meeting with senior Iraqi government officials in Baghdad and with U.S. representatives.

"Yes, it is a big change," he said through an interpreter at Forward Operating Base Paliwoda, a U.S. forward operating base near the city of Balad. "I was their media person. They used me to call the people to fight [the coalition forces]. I gave speeches in mosques, in videotapes, on the Internet and on CDs.

"Now I work with the coalition forces and my government."

Mullah Najim's path to al Qaeda and back is full of twists and turns. After U.S. forces toppled the regime of Saddam Hussein in 2003, he initially cooperated with U.S. forces in inspecting damaged mosques around the Jabouri Peninsula area of Salahaddin province that would need repair. But cooperation ended as the Sunni resistance to U.S. forces began in earnest and U.S. soldiers responded with hard-edged combat tactics, rather than the hearts-and-minds counterterrorism methods used today.

"At that time, coalition forces were making a lot of mistakes," he said. "When coalition forces kept breaking into our houses, the people started to hate them, and I was criticized for working with them.

"I am from a famous family, and I was working with the coalition forces; a lot of people followed me. Some gangs were angry [about that] and started to give false information about me."

Sermons criticizing U.S. use of what he said were corrupt Iraqi contractors in the area earned him more enemies and soured his relationship with the troops he had come to view as "occupiers."

He then embraced the nationalist insurgency under the banner of Jaish Islami, also called Jaish Islamiya, an organization formed by former Ba'ath Party officials and soldiers of Saddam's disbanded military. It wasn't difficult for him to make contact with them in Ad Duluyiah and the Jabouri Peninsula, about 60 miles north of Baghdad.

"This is the heart of darkness. The Sunni insurgency had its beginnings here," said Capt. Anthony Keller, a company commander with the 32nd Cavalry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, based at Paliwoda. "The al-Jabouri tribe seemed to have a special status under Saddam Hussein and didn't adjust very well to losing their position."