Hundreds of Iraqis paid respects Friday to the slain sheik credited with forging ties between Sunni tribesmen and the U.S. military, and American leaders mulled over the prospects of the brother expected to succeed him.
The U.S. military also reported that four U.S. soldiers were killed in Diyala province by an explosion near their vehicle. No names were released pending notification of their families, and no further details were available.
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An umbrella group that includes Al Qaeda in Iraq on Friday claimed responsibility in a Web site posting for the killing of Abdul-Sattar Abu Risha, who had persuaded Sunni tribes that once backed the insurgents to accept U.S. cooperation and arms to fight them.
His death Thursday outside his home was a setback to U.S.-led efforts in the western province of Anbar, which President Bush has used as a measure of success in the military build-up that began earlier this year.
Abu Risha’s older brother, Ahmed, will reportedly take over leadership of the tribal coalition, known as the Anbar Awakening Council.
At the Pentagon, Col. Sean MacFarland predicted that after Abu Risha’s death others would vie for increased influence over the movement but that they would remain U.S. allies.
MacFarland, as commander of the 1st Armored Division’s 1st Brigade, led U.S. forces in Anbar’s provincial capital, Ramadi, in 2006 and helped broker the deal between U.S. forces and Abu Risha last September.
The two Abu Risha brothers were a striking contrast, MacFarland said, with Abdul-Sattar in traditional clothing known as a charismatic risk-taker and the older, college-educated Ahmed in Western-style suits, a businessman and dealmaker.
Ahmed Abu Risha, who holds a degree in political science, “will have more of a consensus type of approach where Sattar was more, ‘My way or the highway,'” MacFarland said.
An estimated 1,500 people attended Abu Risha’s funeral Friday. Mourners included the defense and interior ministers of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s Shiite-dominated government.
The Islamic State of Iraq, a broad organization that includes Al Qaeda in Iraq, said it had planned the killing for a month as punishment for collaborating with Americans, according to the posting on the Web site.
“You cannot eliminate the possibility that it was a homegrown effort by those political opponents within Iraq who are concerned about the growing political power of the Sunnis,” said retired Army Gen. William Nash, now at the Council on Foreign Relations.
But, added Nash, the killing could also have been an inside job carried out by Sunni insurgents planting someone inside Abu Risha’s circle.