The Anbar Salvation Council has been making inroads in Fallujah and the surrounding regions, and the attack is clearly designed to decapitate the local organization and intimidate the local tribes. Al Qaeda has conducted similar attacks in the past in the Fallujah region, most recently in Amiriya during the funeral of a member of the Anbar Salvation Council. Al Qaeda conducted a large scale assault on the funeral procession which was beaten off by members of the Anbar Salvation Council, who called for support from Iraqi police and Army units. The member of the council was killed in a brutal suicide attack on a mosque in Habbaniyah, where the cleric was preaching against al Qaeda and its perversion of Islam. Suicide chlorine gas attacks have been used at least 10 times against civilian and military targets in Ramadi and the eastern Anbar province region.

Much of Anbar has seen a dramatic decrease in violence and a remarkable turnaround in political progress over the past several months, as the Anbar Salvation Council has been the driving force behind the recruitment of local police and the formation of the Provincial Security Forces - which were formally known as the Emergency Response Units - and are now the government sanctioned provincial police forces. Eight battalions have been formed, with about 750 members per unit. Ramadi, which was once the most violent city in Iraq, has seen attacks reduced to two a day, down from a peak of 50 last year.

The regions north, south and east of Fallujah are the new contested regions in Anbar province, as Ramadi and the regions south and west have seen a dramatic influx of local security forces rejecting the presence of al Qaeda. Amiriya, Ferris, Karma and Zaidon are the new battlegrounds in Anbar province.

The Albu Issa tribe dominates the Amiriya region and portions of Fallujah, and the tribe is split between pro-government elements which largely dominate the urbanized areas and the pro al Qaeda elements which rule in the rural regions. The pro government Albu Issa provide police to patrol in Amiriya, and a large segment of the Fallujah police force is made up of Albu Issa. While it isn't explicitly stated in the Adnkronos article, Allawi al-Isawi is a member of the Albu Issa tribe, and no doubt was murdered by al Qaeda.