Low Supplies, Political Disputes in Anbar

The other big problem in Anbar at the moment is infighting between the various tribal groups about who the governor of Anbar is. Last year Sunni Muslim demonstrators, who had protesting their treatment by the former Iraqi government for months, made local man Ahmed Khalaf al-Dulaimi, the governor of Anbar.

Al-Dulaimi supported the protests and he was also able to gain the support of one of the country’s most prominent Sunni Muslim politicians, Osama al-Nujaifi. Al-Nujaifi and his party supported al-Dulaimi’s governorship in any voting.

However at a meeting that al-Dulaimi held with former Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in late 2013, the governor of Anbar admitted to the Prime Minister that there might well be some terrorists among the protestors, which was something the Prime Minister had always accused the demonstrations of. After the meeting, al-Maliki released portions of the filmed conversations during which al-Dulaimi had said all this – and when they saw it, many in Anbar began to consider their governor a traitor.

The chaos that ensued in Anbar after al-Maliki and the Iraqi army cleared the demonstrators away forcefully meant that al-Dulaimi ended up staying in the governor’s seat. And when the governor was badly injured during battles between the Iraqi army and the IS group in the Haditha district, Anbar locals once again began to respect him.