Ali Hatem al-Suleiman (born 1971) was the Sheikh of the Dulaim tribe of Iraq's Anbar Governorate and the founder of the National Front for the Salvation of Iraq political party. al-Suleiman fought against both the Shi'ite government of Iraq and their United States allies and al-Qaeda in Iraq during the Iraq War, and in 2014 he supported the Islamic State during their offensive in northern Iraq. As the leader of the Revolutionary Tribal Council, he led a large Sunni militia during the Iraqi Civil War.
Biography[]
Ali Hatem Abd al-Razzaq Ali al-Suleiman al-Assafi al-Dulaimi was born in 1971 to the Sunni Muslim Dulaimi tribe of Bedouin in Baghdad, Iraq. His tribe was the largest in Iraq, with 3,000,000 members that mostly inhabited the Anbar Governorate of western Iraq and western Baghdad. al-Suleiman became their sheikh, and in 2003 he was one of the Sunni sheikhs to join in the insurgency against the United States and their occupying coalition during the Iraq War. In 2006, however, he turned against al-Qaeda in Iraq due to their indiscriminate killing of civilians and their lack of respect for the tribal sheikhs, and he formed a 60,000-strong armed police force in Anbar. In 2008, he gained enough support to form the National Front for the Salvation of Iraq party, and in 2012 he decided to return to the anti-Shi'ite insurgency with his tribe after Iraqi Army troops killed several Dulaimi tribesmen. He founded the Anbar Tribal Council, Revolutionary Tribal Council, and the Military Council of Anbar's Revolutionaries, and from 30 December 2013 to 25 June 2014 his forces waged war against the government with help of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria group. In June, he assisted the ISIS group in their offensive that occupied much of northern Iraq, and he claimed that 93-95% of tthe insurgents in the offensive were Sunni tribesmsen and that he could defeat ISIS if Iraq halted their occupation of northern Iraq, deposed Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, and gave Sunnis their rights.