Abdul Sattar Abu Risha (1972-13 September 2007) was the sheikh of the Anbar Salvation Council and the Awakening Council in Iraq. He led pro-government Sunni militias in the Anbar Province, and they fought in the Iraq War against al-Qaeda in Iraq and the Iraqi insurgents until Abu Risha's assassination.
Biography[]
Abdul Sattar Abu Risha was born in 1972, the grandson of a man who fought in the 1920 Revolution against the United Kingdom and the son of a man who fought in the Anglo-Iraqi War in 1941, also against Britain. He ran construction and import-export businesses prior to the Iraq War, and he became a warlord and oil smuggler. Abu Risha tacitly supported the Iraqi insurgency against the United States and the Iraqi government after 2003, but after al-Qaeda challenged the tribal leaders' power in Ramadi in Anbar Province, Abu Risha formed the anti-militant Awakening Council and the Anbar Salvation Council. Abu Risha's Sunni government militias fought against al-Qaeda in Iraq and the other insurgents, but on 13 September 2007 he was killed in an IED attack on the road to his house gate in Ramadi. The head of his own security detail was involved, and many were arrested; 1,500 people attended his funeral and vows of revenge were sworn.