Iraqi tribal leaders eye chance at power

"Once we have our own government, we will want Americans to leave -- all of them, every soldier!" said Sheik Thair Kamiz Thari al-Zuba'i, 76, who heads the large Zuba'i tribe in the heart of the Sunni Triangle, the flash point for anti-American attacks. "Of course, the soldiers must get out," said the stout man in his gold-trimmed robes, punching a fist in the air.

"No, we will need them," said his son Abdul Razak, 38, an engineer for Iraq's Ministry of Agriculture. "Listen, whether or not you accept it, the Americans are going to leave their military bases here. So we had better make a deal with them. We will get them to protect the country and guard our borders."

For the first time in five decades, many tribal leaders like these -- who command enormous respect in villages across the country -- have a shot at power. As the reality of that began to sink in yesterday, those whose authority has extended only across their community suddenly wrestled over how to finally claim a stake in the new political deal -- with a sense that they, too, could help decide the country's fate.

In a stunning break from months of political paralysis and mounting violence, Iraq's Governing Council and US officials announced that a transitional Iraqi government would be in control from July 1 and will organize elections for a permanent government by the end of 2005. For many Iraqis, the planning for that date already has begun.

But while Iraqis discussed their future, a voice from the past pierced their living rooms last night. An audiotape purporting to bear the voice of Saddam Hussein was broadcast on Al-Arabiya, a popular satellite channel.

In the nine-minute address, the voice urged Iraqis to continue attacks against American soldiers until they drove them from Iraq. The voice called on those waging "jihad" to attack coalition forces "even harder," saying, "The aggressors have no choice but to leave our nation."

"Iraq will rebel against their evil intentions to colonize it and to wield influence in it," the voice added. Hussein has eluded capture despite a manhunt since his regime was toppled in April.

Within minutes of the broadcast's end, a loud blast was heard in Baghdad. Coalition officials could not confirm the source of the explosion.

Shortly after, three much louder explosions resounded in the city, rattling windows and shaking buildings. US officials last night told the Associated Press they believed those blasts were part of a major US Army offensive dubbed Operation Iron Hammer, which began last week with aerial rocket attacks on suspected guerrilla hide-outs.

American soldiers earlier yesterday cordoned off large sections of Adamiyah, a heavily Sunni neighborhood in the west of the capital. Armored vehicles blocked streets and helicopters patrolled overhead.

Toward midnight, Baghdad was plunged into darkness in a citywide blackout -- the first in several weeks -- increasing the sense of unease that has pervaded the city.

The US military said yesterday it was investigating why two Black Hawk helicopters collided over the northern city of Mosul on Saturday, killing 17 American soldiers. Coalition officials have not confirmed witnesses' reports that one helicopter had been fired at from the ground.

As the insurgency continued, both President Bush and the US administrator to Iraq, L. Paul Bremer III, said yesterday that the issue of the country's sovereignty is separate from the matter of how long American forces will stay in Iraq. Bush administration officials say the latter issue will be negotiated in a new deal with the Governing Council before July, but that a tacit agreement has been reached to keep US forces in place for as long as Washington deems necessary.

"The number of troops will not be determined by the fact that there is a new government," Bremer said on the CNN program "Late Edition." "It will be determined by the conditions on the ground."

Although the presence of US troops could prolong the insurgency, Bremer has said he believes the surest way to defuse the insurgency is to draw in hundreds of local leaders -- people like Sheik Thair -- in a grand assembly, in an attempt to carve a democracy from the ground up. The new government will be appointed from among assembly representatives.

For the elderly sheik, that offers a unique prospect to join the political process. And in so doing, he would correct -- albeit late in his life -- decades of injustice suffered by his family.

"Perhaps I will be in Parliament myself," he said. "Why not? Iraqis refuse to let anyone treat them with disrespect," he added, explaining why he believes there is widespread dissatisfaction with the US-led occupation.

His grandfather, Sheik Thari, after whom this settlement is named, fled his home in the compound a few hundred yards from the current-day porch after he slaughtered a British colonel with his sword in 1920, the last time Western soldiers occupied Iraq. The revered ancestor, whose portrait hangs in a corner of the current sheik's reception room, was captured and died of illness while in custody.

The sheik's father had a career as a legislator in Baghdad. But that came to an abrupt end when the Ba'ath Party seized power in a revolution in 1958. And the current sheik also has not escaped political drama: Hussein seized much of his land in 1980, a fate that befell many tribal leaders.

If the sheik follows his father's example and heads to Baghdad as a legislator, his task might not be much easier than it was in the 1950s, when Iraq was on the brink of a revolution.

Many residents of Khan Thari, near a hotbed of guerrilla activity in Fallujah, made it clear yesterday that they still would back a guerrilla campaign against US forces even if an Iraqi government is installed.

"We will continue attacks against Americans as long as they are in Iraq," said Farhan Kalaf al-Zuba'i, another son of the sheik. "We will not believe in any political deal until it is a government that we have elected ourselves."

Walking home from school on the main street of Khan Thari, Hareth al-Zuba'i, 17, said he and his friends did not believe any details of the political deal, which they had seen being announced on television Saturday night.

"This is just a trick," he said. "Americans will stay here forever. Already Bush is saying he will not withdraw his soldiers."

Those sentiments, the sheik's son Abdul Razak said, are widespread in this part of the Sunni Triangle. They have resulted partly from months of witnessing American forces in combat mode, hunkered down in one of the most hostile corners of Iraq. "American shoot at people, and so they shoot back," he said."But over time, things will change," said Abdul Razak, who is also eyeing a place for himself in the new government. He has made a start already: Shortly after Hussein's government collapsed, Abdul Razak formed a local council of volunteers in Khan Thari to organize public services, which vanished with the regime. What will win people over to the new political deal?

"It will just take time," he said.