American forces in Iraq's volatile Anbar province have a new ally, Sunni tribal sheikhs.
Some two dozen sheikhs banded together late last year, in what they called the awakening.
For angels Samara had the Saudi sheikhs Khalid bin Mahfouz and Mohammad Hussein Al-Amoudi.
The system there will at first be used to allow time-strapped sheikhs to zip across town.
Especially in the mixed-sect province of Diyala, grumbling among the Sahwa-supporting sheikhs may be rising.
My bet is that the oil sheikhs are safely in place for the foreseeable future.
It's mostly true - that it was the sheikhs who called for the formation of these battalions.
It could also follow the lead of those sheikhs and oligarchs who like to buy English football clubs.
Elsewhere they point to Anbar province, a formerly violent insurgent stronghold where Sunni sheikhs have turned on al-Qaeda.
He has heard the concerns about the sheikhs becoming a shadowy military force.
The Sufi sheikhs, or holy men, preached that a true Muslim could not tolerate the rule of foreign infidels.
Sheikh AHMED ABU RISHA (Sunni Tribal Leader): (Through translator) And they are assassinated a lot of the sheikhs at that time.
His face was grim and fixed as tribal sheikhs swirled around him.
So, we need to make sure that we live up to our side of the bargain with the sheikhs that have come forward.
He took her with him, even as a child, to business meetings all over the globe, to the bemusement of bankers and sheikhs.
That should make it harder for trigger-happy oligarchs, sheikhs and foreign celebrities to use the threat of a London lawsuit to intimidate critics.
These projections matter not only quantitatively but also qualitatively, because the Chinese gamble differently from Arab oil sheikhs, Russian oligarchs or American pensioners.
Over this he is seen wearing a cream-coloured bisht - a cloak worn by respected sheikhs, tribal elders and religious leaders in the Arab world.
Determined to experience as much as possible, he went out several times a week in a Marine convoy to meet tribal sheikhs and local officials.
Still, some American officers are privately wary of the mercurial sheikhs.
They worry about the growing power of the Sunni sheikhs within the police force, that could lead to more friction with the Shiite-dominated government in Baghdad.
Robed sheikhs with trimmed beards and cloaks edged with gold thread were giving each other elaborate greetings, the men touching their noses to each other in the tribal tradition.
Many Sunni and Shia tribal sheikhs say that they are prepared to go to the aid of their co-religionists in the disputed province, should the Kurds try to hold it by force.
And he got together a large number of his fellow sheikhs at his house and on the 14th of September, I was with him when he formed this compact called the Anbar Awakening.
Since 1981, when Mr Sharif entered politics, he had assiduously cultivated the Saudis and the ruling sheikhs of the United Arab Emirates, and had never taken any major political decision without consulting them.
About 200 kings, princes, sultans, sheikhs and traditional leaders had been due to attend the meeting in Kampala on Tuesday to elect a secretary general for the eastern zone of the organisation, the paper says.
There is no doubt the UAE is one of those allies - and its ruling sheikhs will be steering carefully between the viewpoints of their recent and current visitors over the next few days, says our correspondent.
The Americans have also had some success in Anbar province, west of Baghdad, where a new Anbar Salvation Council of Sunni tribal sheikhs is leading a campaign against al-Qaeda, which may have overreached itself in the area.
UAE's Federal National Council, a consultative body that stirs up a modicum of debate but makes no executive decisions, will henceforth be elected after a fashion, whereas at present all are appointed by a committee of senior sheikhs.
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