Gen David Petraeus, the Commander of the US Central Command, who previouslyheaded the US forces in Iraq, was credited with bringing down the level ofviolence in Iraq and weakening the capability of Al Qaeda in Iraq by creating adivide between the secular Baathist Arabs of Saddam Hussein's army and localadministration and the Wahabi Arabs of Al Qaeda by strengthening variouslocal militias with names such as the Awakening Councils, which had come intoexistence even before he took over in Iraq.