BAGHDAD – U.S. military intelligence has drafted a flow chart of the Sunni insurgency linked to al-Qaida and associated groups, U.S. officials said according to Geostrategy-Direct, the global intelligence news service.

Al-Qaida-inspired groups have taken over most of the insurgency from loyalists of Saddam Hussein, they said.

The Sunni insurgency network has spread throughout Iraq, including Shiite areas of the south. Insurgency strongholds along Iraq's borders with Saudi Arabia and Syria have supported the cells.

Officials said the groups adopt different names to confuse the U.S. military. But many cells have been identified with the Saudi-sponsored Wahhabi movement or with Ansar Al Islam. Ansar was believed to be linked to Abu Mussib Al Zarqawi, regarded as the most lethal Sunni insurgent in Iraq.

[On March 17, at least 30 people were killed when a huge bomb destroyed a major Baghdad hotel. U.S. military commanders attributed the attack to Al Zarqawi.]

At a March 10 briefing, Maj. Gen. Charles Swannack, commander of the U.S. Army 82nd Airborne Division, gave the first public details of the military's chart of the Sunni insurgency. Swannack, whose area of responsibility includes the Sunni Triangle, said al-Qaida-inspired groups are composed of small cells in such cities as Fallujah, A-Ramadi and Qaim.

"I believe that the foreign fighters and terrorists have a cellular organization," Swannack said. "I would estimate out in Al Anbar province there are somewhere between eight to 10 cells, predominantly in the larger cities – Fallujah, A-Ramadi, out by Husaybah, Al Qaim region. Probably the cells have somewhere between five to eight individuals in the cell."

Swannack said foreign Muslim fighters have faced difficulty in maintaining a presence in the Sunni Triangle and western Iraq.

The general said Iraqi civilians, however, usually have reported the arrival of suspected volunteers.

"I think it's been very difficult for the terrorists to establish these cells because the Iraqis don't want them here," Swannack said. "We get very, very good tips and sources to tell us when there are foreign fighters or terrorists in their area, and so that's the predominant means through which we go ahead and systematically, with precision efforts, take down the terrorist organization.

"So what I've told you is probably 50 to 80 foreign fighters or terrorists organized and about eight to 10 cells out there in Al Anbar."

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