Tribal/Fundamentalist Violence
Guerrillas Economically self-sustaining
That a tribal group and Sunni fundamentalists clashed in al-Anbar is believeable. That the tribe lost 9 and “al-Qaeda” lost 55 is not, unless it was a sneak attack.
The NYT says that oil smuggling, antiquities smuggling, kidnapping for ransom, and fraud raise as much as $200 million a year for the Sunni Arab guerrilla movement. I suspect money comes in from the Oil Gulf, as well. There has been no success in cutting the funding off.
John Tirman on regionalizing Iraq: “Few if any peace processes can succeed without the neighbors’ active consent.”