Hawijah holds clues to cause of anti-US insurgency

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

Al-HAWIJAH, Iraq : "Damn the occupier and long live the mujahedeen," read the posters plastered on every palm tree on the dusty main road in Hawija where US forces say they are fighting the last remnants of Saddam Hussein's fallen regime.

But it is a lot more complicated than that in these tribal flatlands ensconced between the ethnic tinderbox of Kirkuk and the Hamreen mountains, which separate it from Saddam's hometown of Tikrit and nearby Ad-Dawr, where the former dictator was captured 20 days ago.

"In this region you do not have a nice neat network that connects it all together," said Colonel William Mayville of the 173rd Airborne Brigade, which patrols Kirkuk and Hawijah.

"You have a series of local issues based on the demographics locally that are like Venn diagrams (mathematical sets) that lay on top of each other."

more: http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_world/view/64660/1/.html