KIRKUK, Oct 16: Masked men claiming to represent Iraqi guerillas said on Monday they had begun talks with US forces, after a weekend meeting of Sunni tribal sheikhs called for the restoration of ousted leader Saddam Hussein.

In the northern oil city of Kirkuk, an Iraqi calling himself Abdel Rahman Abu Khula said his movement, a group of former Baath party officials and army officers known as the Islamic Army, would not meet the Iraqi government.

“In reality, we only negotiate with the ruling power in Iraq and that is the occupier,” he said. “Today it is us and the Americans who are controlling the situation in Iraq.”

Abu Khula said his group represents some 17 nationalist organisations, and is seeking the withdrawal of US forces and the release of detainees from US and Iraqi government prisons.

“The Americans have now decided to talk with us due to the escalation of our heroic deeds and the development of our explosives technology for use against their vehicles and bases,” he claimed.

There have been repeated rumours about contacts between the Iraqi government or US forces and the more nationalist elements of the resistance, but no US official has ever confirmed talks with armed Baathists.

Abu Khula was at pains to distance his group, which is made up of largely secular elements of the former government, from Islamist outfits such as Al Qaeda and Ansar al Sunna.

“The brothers in Al Qaeda and Ansar al Sunna use explosions as part of their strategies,” he said, claiming that Baathists and Saddamists are often wrongfully blamed for these atrocities.

“We do not target Iraqis, even their animals. We only target those with links to the foreigners and against Iraqis. We chop off their heads.”

The leaders of many of the Sunni tribes which met on Sunday also criticised Al Qaeda and other groups for provoking divisions in the resistance and attacking members of their tribes.

In the past three years of resistance against US-led forces, rifts have often appeared between elements of the resistance made up of the former government’s security apparatus and religiously-minded groups linked to Al Qaeda.

The latest statements came in the wake of a coordinated bombing campaign targeting civilians in Kirkuk on Sunday, with suicide car bombs in a market and in front of a women’s teaching college.

These disputes have occasionally broken out into open conflict between the two arms of the resistance — something US military commanders are privately encouraged by.

In the western province of Al Anbar, the hostility to Al Qaeda-linked groups erupted into a full scale tribal onslaught called the Anbar Awakening, which was hailed by the government.

On Sunday, Prime Minister Nuri al Maliki said in a speech that another such tribal alliance could be expected imminently in another province.

The meeting of 500 tribal chiefs and representatives featured self-declared former Baath leaders who were less concerned with fighting Al Qaeda than restoring Saddam Hussein.

“This gathering is to unify the Arab tribes in the face of the occupation and its agents and to struggle against those who would divide the Iraqi people,” said Abu Bassem, who said he was a Baath leader.

Supporters waved portraits of Saddam and called for his release, calling him the ‘legitimate’ president.—AFP