Iraqis Fight al Qaeda, Call For US Help

Here's a story that somehow slipped through the censors:

BAGHDAD - A battle raged Thursday in west Baghdad after residents rose up against al-Qaida and called for U.S. military help to end random gunfire that forced people to huddle indoors and threats that kept students from final exams, a member of the district council said.

Update: Omar at Iraq the Model has talked to friends in the area, and says that the AP has mischaracterized the fighting, and that the groups are actually opposing insurgent bands:

The two groups, teams actually, were later identified; on one side there's al-Qaeda and the Islamic state in Iraq and on the other there's the Islamic army and 'Jaish al-Mujahideen' (The brigades of the 1920 revolution in another account), the latter are know to be largely military and intelligence officers of the former regime as well as members of the Baath Party.

Hmmm, maybe we should help both sides.

Omar still considers AQ in Iraq to be in a bad way:

Either way, al-Qaeda is under pressure on more than one front and it has lost a bunch of its commanders and fighters and this is always good news.

Thanks to guy in comments at the The Jawa Report.