Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
IAF strikes in Gaza after rocket explodes in Israel |
2015-06-24 |
[Ynet] Air force hits rocket launcher in northern Gazoo Strip; projectile lands in open area in southern Israel; Salafist group claims responsibility. The Israeli Air Force struck a target in the northern Gazoo Strip from which a rocket was launched earlier Tuesday night. A Salafist group sympathetic to the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not reallyMoslems.... group, the "Omar Brigades," grabbed credit. Yisrael Beytenu Chairman MK Avigdor Lieberman said after the incident that "He who is willing to absorb 'trickles' will ultimately get torrential rain. "We cannot accept this situation. No government has a right to exist if it is willing to accept a situation in which less than a year after a military operation that cost us dearly in soldiers' lives and disruption of national life for two months, a situation is returning where residents of the south must again run to shelters. This situation is intolerable, unacceptable, and we must put an end to it." "The war between them inside the Strip does not interest us... It should be made absolutely clear to the other side that we are not willing to take either a flotilla or fire from Gazoo," said Yair Farjun, chairman of Hof Ashkelon Regional Council, referring to the announcement by MK Bassel Ghattas that he would join a flotilla that he says is meant to provide humanitarian aid to Gazoo. A number of rockets were fired at Israel from Gazoo in the last few weeks. On June 11, a siren sounded in the Ashkelon area, also around 10 PM. The IDF later announced that the siren was prompted by a rocket launch from Gazoo that landed inside the Strip. Around 9:30 PM on June 6, a rocket went kaboom!in an open area in Ashkelon, after which the AIF struck terror infrastructure in the northern Gazoo Strip. Gazoo has recently seen attempts by Salafists ...Salafists are ostentatiously devout Moslems who figure the ostentation of their piety gives them the right to tell others how to do it and to kill those who don't listen to them... to challenge Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, rule and fire rockets despite the existing ceasefire. A senior Salafist leader in Gazoo said his people could not tolerate the reality of Hamas persecuting, arresting, and killing them. |
Link |
Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
Gaza Islamic State supporters claim responsibility for rocket fire |
2015-06-14 |
[Ynet] A Salafist group which sympathizes with the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not reallyMoslems.... grabbed credit on Friday morning for the rocket fired at Ashkelon on Thursday night, which fell inside the Gazoo Strip. The "Omar Brigades" grabbed credit for the last several rocket attacks on Israel. |
Link |
Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
Hamas wages crackdown against pro-Isil jihadists in Gaza |
2015-06-05 |
[TELEGRAPH.CO.UK] Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,, the Islamist movement that runs Gazoo, has launched a drive to crush local salafist ...also known as Wahhabis, salafists are against innovation in religion or in anything else. They eat the same things every meal of every day and all their children are named Abdullah or Mohammed. Not all salafists are takfiris, but all takfiris are salafists. They are fond of praying five times a day and killing infidels... groups that it fears could weaken their hold on the territory by provoking a new conflict with Israel. The campaign has been steadily intensifying even before fresh Israeli air strikes against Hamas bases on Wednesday in retaliation for rocket fire that was blamed on a small jihadist group professing sympathy for the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not reallyMoslems.... of Iraq and the Levant [Isil]. A wave of arrests resulting in the detention of hundreds of jihadists over the past month reached a new peak this week when Hamas forces rubbed out Yussef al-Hanar, 27, a local salafist leader, in the northern Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood. Officials said was shot during an attempt to take him into custody. Tuesday evening's rocket fire, which landed in open areas near the Israeli port city of Ashdod and nearby Netivot, was claimed by a group calling itself the Omar Brigades. The group said in a statement that it was avenging al-Hanar's death. Analysts in Gazoo say the salafists - who embrace a strictly ascetic form of Islam - accuse Hamas of abandoning the path of resistance against Israel by agreeing to last summer's ceasefire that ended 50 days of bloody warfare in the coastal strip. In recent weeks, a group allying itself with the Supporters of the Islamic State in Jerusalem - a jihadist organization based in Egypt's Sinai region - is thought to have been responsible for a series of night-time kabooms, none of which have caused any casualties. |
Link |
Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
Israeli warplanes strike Hamas targets after Gaza rockets land in Israel |
2015-06-04 |
[JP] The group that claimed responsibility for firing the rockets at Israel, calling itself the Omar Brigades, said the rocket fire on Wednesday was in retaliation for Hamas's killing of an Islamic state supporter a day earlier in Gaza. Israel retaliated on Thursday for rockets fired at it from Gaza with bombing raids against three militant training camps, and a radical Islamist group sympathetic with Islamic state claimed responsibility for the attacks on Israel. Witnesses and medics said the predawn attacks on two camps belonging to Hamas Islamists who dominate in Gaza and the Islamic Jihad group caused some damage but no casualties. The Israeli military confirmed the strikes saying that in response to rocket fire it "struck three terror infrastructures in the Gaza Strip," and added that "hits were confirmed." The rockets aimed at the Israeli city of Ashkelon and town of Netivot were the second such launchings at Israel in the past week, marking an escalation since a hiatus in cross-border fire since a 50-day Israeli war with Hamas ended with an Egyptian-brokered truce in August. A radical Islamist Salafist group posted a statement on Twitter claiming responsibility for firing the rockets. Calling itself the Omar Brigades the group said the rocket fire on Wednesday was in retaliation for Hamas's killing of an Islamic state supporter in a shootout a day earlier in Gaza. |
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India-Pakistan | ||
A decaying state kills its minorities | ||
2012-09-03 | ||
The people who target religious minorities in Pakistain had been nurtured as the state's proxy warriors; the state then surrendered to them its monopoly of violence 150-strong mob of pious Mohammedans in Islamabad committed vandalism, baying for the blood of a mentally challenged Christian child Ramsha because they thought she had burned the Koran. The police had her under arrest pretending it was for her own security. Earlier, a mad 'blaspheming' man in Bahawalpur was taken out of jail and burned to death. After the imposition of the Blasphemy Law the first major case was also against a 14 year old Christian boy in Gujranwala who had to be smuggled abroad to prevent him from being killed. According to World Minority Rights Report 2011, Pakistain ranks as the 6th worst country after some African states in respect of safety and rights of minorities. This includes non-Mohammedans, those the state has dubbed non-Mohammedan, and women. Ironically, this behaviour also includes persecution of non-Mohammedans through forced conversion to Islam, through forcible marriages of non-Mohammedan girls to Mohammedans, and apparently willing conversion of non-Mohammedans to Islam to secure themselves against persecution. Hindus of Sindh have tried to migrate to India. (Nearly 568 FIRs for forced marriages were lodged last year across 40 districts of Pakistain, with the majority of such cases having been filed in Sindh.) Instead of sympathising with such runaways, the liberal PPP government suspected them of being disloyal to Pakistain and stopped them - for some time - from visiting India. Hindus are the largest minority community in Sindh. The minister who did that himself fears being killed by the elements who hunt Pakistain's Hindu community. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistain's Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... chapter has identified an ongoing exodus of Hindu families from Quetta too due to fear of kidnappings for ransom, yet the Balochistan government does not seem to be doing much to address this problem. Christians living in the Islamic world are marginalised and threatened with persecution. But Pakistain perhaps began the trend. InFebruary 1997, the twin villages of Shantinagar-Tibba Colony 12 kilometres East of Khanewal, Multan Division, were looted and burnt by 20,000 Mohammedan citizens and 500 coppers. The police first evacuated the Christian population of 15,000, then helped the raiders use battle-field explosives to blow up their houses and property. In November 2005, the Christian community of Sangla Hill in Nankana District in Punjab experienced a most hair-raising day of violence and vandalism. Daily Dawn (13 November 2005) described it like this:
In May 2009, some 12 Christian families fled their homes in a village of Sahiwal because they feared that a dispute growing around an act of blasphemy in a school may result in their persecution. The village had at least 6,500 voters in it but the dispute - which may be political - was entwined with the other politics of blasphemy law. The community cowered in the face of dire announcements being made from mosque loudspeakers. The 'blasphemy' incident took place in a classroom in a local school where a page of the Holy Koran was found with ink splattered on it when the school opened in the morning. The same month, an incident put the world on notice about what Pakistain is moving towards. In Surjani Town in Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It may be the largest city in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... , some Pashtun neighbourhood myrmidons wrote graffiti on the church wall saying: 'Taliban zindabad', 'Islam zindabad', 'Christians Islam qabool karo ya jiziya dow', etc, after which an exchange of fire maimed some Christians in addition to killing one.
If the state in Pakistain survives, it must call to mind the following articles of the Constitution that give protection to the Christians who form the largest religious minority in Punjab estimated to be between 2 to 4 million: Article 20: freedom to profess religion and to manage religious institutions; Article 22: safeguards around education with respect to religious freedom; Article 25: equality of citizenship; Article 36: protection of minorities. But these rights and values enshrined in the Constitution have been undermined by a series of legislations related to the affirmation of the state's ideological credentials. The introduction in 1984 of the Qanoon-e-Shahadat or 'Law of Evidence' reduces the value of court testimony of a Mohammedan woman and a non-Mohammedan male citizen to that of half a Mohammedan and, by extension, that of a non-Mohammedan woman to one-quarter. Similarly the introduction of a series of amendments to the Blasphemy Laws in the PPC [section 295], adding in 1982 section 295-B which provides for mandatory life imprisonment for desecrating the Holy Koran, and in 1986 the even harsher section 295-C, which is mandatory death in respect of the insult of the Prophet (PTUI!), exposes the broadly poverty-stricken Christian community to abuses of the law. Most Mohammedans hold that violation of some human rights One man's rights are another man's existential threat. takes place because of the tough living conditions and poverty in the country. The view displays all the collective blind spots about human rights. It presumes certain conditions to exist against objective evidence to the contrary. It talks about the minorities in Pakistain without being aware of their view of how they are being treated. Under the present PPP government a Christian federal minister has been killed by Punjabi Taliban in broad daylight in Islamabad. Today in 2012, you have TV anchors saying more or less the same thing: Mohammedans themselves are being maltreated, so the persecution of non-Mohammedans cannot be blamed on them. Going on a tangent, they allude to the Rohingya Mohammedans of Burma about whom the rascally foreign-funded NGOs have done nothing. (In Burma, the NGOs protesting Rohingya rights are savagely suppressed by the Burmese ruling junta.) The ominous sign in Pakistain is that the majority Mohammedan community is completely inured against what the minorities are going through. The blasphemy law victims bear the brunt of the rage of the Barelvis like late Maulana Sarfraz Naeemi, secretary general of Tanzimat Madaris Dinia, who actually led a Lashkar to Sangla Hill to punish the Christians already mauled by local Mohammedans. He was later killed by the Taliban who think Barelvis are not good Mohammedans. The Deobandi rage is directed at the Shia community too. When the state of Pakistain apostatised the Ahmadis through an Amendment in the Constitution in the 1970s some observers opined that the Shia community would be next in line for exclusion and slaughter. The day has arrived. Like the Ahmadis, the Shia are being killed all over Pakistain like lambs at the slaughter house without much disturbance among the Sunni community which leans on anti-Americanism to favour the Taliban and their ancillary warriors originally prepared by the Army against India. The Shia are not named as a minority in the national census but are informally considered to be nearly 30 percent of the total population. A storm is brewing against them in the Middle East, and Pakistain could be considered as a country where it all began with the help of the state of Pakistain which nurtured the Shia-hating Deobandis and allowed its personnel in the intelligence agencies handling the covert war to be reverse-indoctrinated. The al Qaeda-linked Lashkar Jhangvi in August 2012 published a gruesome video on jihadist internet showing the beheading of two Shia. In a statement that accompanied the video on one of the forums, a jihadist said Lashkar Jhangvi is part of al Qaeda and the Taliban. Two of the Lashkar fighters then pulled out knives, and proceeded to behead the Shia men. The victims' heads were then placed on their laps. The warriors wiped their knives on the clothes of the slain men. Lashkar claimed that 'most of the operations against the Shia in Pakistain, if not all of them, are carried out by this group'. It said that Lashkar was the Omar Brigade of Taliban-Pakistain as the Omar Brigade of al Qaeda targeted Badr Brigade and others among the Shia. The politicians turn their face away; the judges are scared of the clerical backlash. Pakistain as a state is decaying and is eating its minorities first. Before it becomes a pre-modern hell under Al Qaeda and its followers, it has to accomplish the task begun with the decimation of the Shia: it will eat its Sunni Mohammedans too. For the non-Mohammedans it is a prison from which there is no escape. Pakistain was always dicey with its minorities because of its ideology, but today it is killing its minorities because it is killing itself as a state. The people who have undertaken this destruction have originated in the state of the Mohammedan mind today across the Islamic world, but their midwife in Pakistain was the Army which nurtured them as the state's proxy warriors and then surrendered to them its monopoly of violence. | ||
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Iraq |
Insurgents Really After Iranians, U.S. Just Gets In the Way |
2007-07-14 |
He wore a pale yellow dress shirt and black-rimmed glasses that lost their tint when he entered the dark lobby of a Baghdad hotel. He drank orange soda and refused a cigarette. His face was tense, but he spoke in a calm, open way about the satisfaction of killing Shiites with his own hands. To save you the trouble, this is a WaPo interview with the guy described above, who wants to kill all the Shiites, because they're "trash". The WaPo headline reads Sunni Insurgent Leader Paints Iran as 'Real Enemy'U.S. Strategy Described as Only Inflaming Iraqi Resistance Over the course of a 90-minute interview, a leader of an armed Sunni group in western Baghdad described his hatred for Iran and the current Iraqi government, while outlining the dimensions of an armed insurgency that extends well beyond al-Qaeda in Iraq, the organization that U.S. officials routinely identify as their central enemy. Abu Sarhan, as the 37-year-old insurgent wished to be known, said Iraq's Sunnis are deep into an entrenched and irresolvable civil war against Iranian-backed Shiites. He said the premise of the U.S. military's counterinsurgency strategy -- deploying thousands of soldiers in small outposts in violent neighborhoods -- only inflames the insurgency If U.S. forces release Sunni detainees, remove the concrete blast barriers that now cordon off several neighborhoods and improve services in areas neglected by the Shiite-led government, "the attacks will be reduced 95 percent within days," he said. He added that the Americans' insistence on striking Sunni areas "is generating an increasing resistance." A balding, wiry man who associates said had been an officer in the Fedayeen, the black-clad paramilitary force of the ousted government of Saddam Hussein, Abu Sarhan refused to give his real name. He said he was the "general coordinator" between al-Qaeda in Iraq and the Omar Brigade, an insurgent group founded in July 2005 by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq who was killed by U.S. forces in June 2006. Zarqawi created the Omar Brigade to fight Shiite militias, particularly the Badr Organization, which is loyal to the country's largest Shiite political party, now known as the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council. In Amiriyah, the western Baghdad neighborhood where the Omar Brigade is active, the group is believed to have planted roadside bombs that have killed U.S. troops. Abu Sarhan said he had not personally taken part in those attacks. But he could not say the same for Shiite targets. "Since the beginning of the occupation until now, I have participated in killing many of the militia members, I say it frankly," he said. Asked how many, he looked down and paused for several seconds, his hands interlocked on the cafeteria table. "It's hard to count," he said. An associate of Abu Sarhan's vouched for his leadership credentials. And a college student in Amiriyah, who said he is not an insurgent but that he had met Abu Sarhan briefly about two weeks earlier, said the Sunni insurgent is considered the leader of the Omar Brigade. Abu Sarhan's views illustrate the deep animosity toward Shiites that fuels so much of the sectarian violence in Iraq. His comments also suggested a more restrained view of the United States, which he considers an occupier but one that should not leave immediately. "I personally don't have a hatred of the American people, and I respect American civilization," he said. "They have participated in the progress of all the nations of the world. They invented computers. Such people should be respected. But people who are crying over someone who died 1,400 years ago" -- referring to Shiites and their veneration of a leader killed in the 7th century -- "these should be eliminated, to clear the society of them, because they are simply trash." "The real enemy for the resistance is Iran and those working for Iran," he went on. "Because Iran has a feud which goes back thousands of years with the people of Iraq and the government of Iraq This is just page 1 of three, but you get the idea.... |
Link |
Iraq |
Bill Roggio reports on the fighting in Najaf |
2007-01-29 |
Hattip Instapundit. Lots of good stuff, but I found these bits particularly intriguing: Early reports indicated there were both Sunni terrorists and Shia cultist involved in the fighting. "Governor Asaad Abu Gilel as saying that the militants, who included foreign fighters, had arrived in the city disguised as pilgrims in recent days and based themselves in the orchards, which he said had been bought three or four months ago by supporters of Saddam Hussain." An American military intelligence informed us the early indications are that the Omar Brigade, al-Qaeda in Iraq's unit designated to slaughter Shia, was involved in the fighting. ...the likelihood is the enemy composition consisted of a mix of the Shia Army of Heaven cult and al-Qaeda in Iraq fighters from the Omar Brigade. Cooperation between Shia and Sunni insurgent groups is not a new development in Iraq, as Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army and al_Qaeda cooperated during the Fallujah/Najaf uprisings in the spring and summer of 2004. Shia Iran has been supplying the Sunni insurgency, al-Qaeda and Ansar al-Sunnah with weapons and bomb making materials, and is currently sheltering senior al-Qaeda leaders within its borders. |
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Home Front: WoT | |
Zark's lieutenant responsible for US soldiers' deaths is Tango Uniform | |
2006-07-18 | |
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Link |
Iraq |
Iraq's list of 41 most-wanted |
2006-07-03 |
The Iraqi government's list of 41 most-wanted people, with accusations against them and rewards for information leading to their arrest, translated from Arabic by The Associated Press. Rewards were not promised for everybody.1 - Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, $10 million bounty. Vice president of dissolved Revolutionary Command Council. |
Link |
Iraq |
6 Jordanian al-Qaeda bios released by Mujahideen Shura |
2006-06-02 |
A 21-page booklet documenting the stories of six Jordanian martyrs in Iraq and attributed to writers from the Information Department of the Mujahideen Shura Council, Abu al-Baraa al-Sharqi, Abu Abdullah al-Maqdasi and Abu Ayoob al-Najari, was recently distributed amongst several jihadist forums. A preface emphasizing jihad as a religious duty, incumbent upon all Muslims to protect Islamic lands with their souls, money, and progeny, leads into a Table of Contents listing the names of the martyrs: Abu Hammam al-Urduni, Abu al-Baraa al-Urduni, Abu Radwan al-Urduni, Abu al-Abbas al-Urduni, Abu al-Waleed al-Urduni, and Abu Yihye al-Urdini. The descriptions of the men are in similar fashion to past martyrs biographies produced by the group, presenting their origin, faith in Allah that lit their jihad spirit, and the location of their death. Coming from myriad backgrounds, one martyr a lawyer, another a martial artist, an engineer, and a former Christian, each man was assigned a task within the al-Qaeda structure that reflected their aptitude, despite their want for martyrdom in the suicide brigades, al-Baraa bin Malek and Abu Dagana al-Ansari. Abu Hammam, a second degree black belt in Tae Kwan Do, is noted by the biographers of having a wife and daughter, and traveling to Iraq from Jordan for jihad, arriving in al-Qaim. There he was placed in charge of physical training and martial arts for the mujahideen, and eventually joined Omar Brigade to assassinate spies and collaborators. He ultimately died in al-Yusefiya in a confrontation with American forces. Another martyr, Abu Radwan al-Urduni, the lawyer, is said to have lived in America for some time and following the September 11, 2001 attacks, became a fervent supporter of religious duties. He traveled to Jordan to spread calls to jihad, receiving inspiration from the books of Abu Muhammad al-Maqdasi. Like other members he went to Iraq and enlisted in the martyrdom groups, but was accepted into it and eventually carried out an operation deep in the territories of the enmy, purportedly killing 150 soldiers and wounding 300. The stories of Abu al-Baraa, Abu al-Waleed, Abu al-Abbas, and Abu Yihye tell of similar devotion to jihad, the latter of which is said to have resided in Canada for six months in an attempt to travel to Chechnya. Some of the martyrs participated in recording and distributing computer encoded video of the groups operations, Abu Yihye publishing a recorded message in English threatening Americans, which was delivered to an American base in al-Qaim and purportedly caused great fear and anxiety. Individual strength, desire, and capabilities of the men are described, not only to document their lives, but according to the authors in the preface, to give Muslims thought as they consider jihad or actively participate. |
Link |
Iraq |
Iraqi Insurgents Who's Who |
2006-03-19 |
Long considered a fragmentary and disorganized collection of groups with varying tactics and aims, Iraq's insurgency is showing signs of increasing coordination, consolidation and confidence, those who study it now say. There is no consensus on the precise number of insurgent fighters, but estimates range from a few thousand to more than 50,000. The vast majority of insurgents, probably more than 90 percent, are believed to be Iraqis from the Sunni minority group that largely ruled the country before the fall of Saddam Hussein. But U.S. commanders say that most of the deadliest attacks, and particularly suicide attacks, are committed by foreigners from a range of neighboring countries, including Jordan, Syrian, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Sudan. The formation of the Mujahidin Shura Council , announced on Jan. 21, was a sign of the once-diffuse insurgency's consolidation around the leadership of a few large, powerful groups. It brought together the foreign-backed network of al-Qaeda in Iraq, led by Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, and several smaller, Iraqi-led groups. The council's head was said to be an Iraqi, a move made to counter the image of al-Qaeda as dominated by Arabs from elsewhere in the region. This appointment may be little more than a public relations move. The group's tactics include attacks carried out with bombs, small arms and mortar against Iraqi and American soldiers, as well as, increasingly, Iraqi civilians, most of them Shiites. Two of its "brigades," or affiliates, (the bin Malik and the Al-Ansar) are devoted solely to suicide attacks. Another, the Omar Brigade, is said to target only members of the Badr organization, a feared Shiite militia. Ansar al-Sunnah , which means "partisans of the law," is an offshoot of a group called Ansar al-Islam, which was formed in Kurdistan but has not been heard from in many months. The vast majority of its leaders and foot soldiers are Iraqi Sunnis who adhere to a strict, fundamentalist form of Islam called Salafism, which calls for a return to the practices of early Muslims and has gained radical expression throughout the Arab world. Their tactics -- including lethal suicide attacks -- and religious underpinnings are similar to those of al-Qaeda, but the two groups are considered bitter rivals for influence within the insurgent community. Among their best-known attacks was a roadside bomb blast that killed 14 Marines and an interpreter in August, the deadliest such attack of the war. The stated goal of the Islamic Army in Iraq is to drive the U.S. military out of Iraq. Comprised almost entirely of Iraqi Sunnis, including many still loyal to Saddam Hussein's regime and Baath Party, it is considered more nationalistic than religious in motivation. As many as three-quarters of its attacks, which include improvised bombs and kidnappings but not suicide attacks, are conducted against U.S. forces and non-Iraqi contractors. It often releases video footage of its operations. The group publishes a monthly magazine called al-Fursan and has denied rumors circulating last summer that it was in discussions with Iraqi officials about laying down its weapons. Its members reportedly include a sniper named "Juba," who gained a cult following when he was said to have killed several American soldiers in Baghdad last summer and fall. There is some discussion as to whether the Islamic Front of the Iraqi Resistance , one of the most highly publicized insurgent organizations, is actually an armed group or something of a public relations organ for other groups. It maintains a frequently updated Web site and publishes a magazine called Jami, an acronym composed of its Arabic initials, which also mean "mosque" or "gathering." It has claimed responsibility for a number of attacks in and around the northern city of Mosul, Iraq's third-largest city. Mujahidin Army : A group that has released dozens of videos of bomb, rocket and sniper attacks, most of them directed against U.S. forces. Along with the Islamic Army in Iraq, it denied reports of rapprochement talks with the Iraqi government last year. It is one of a few smaller insurgent groups that called for attacks against Danish troops in the wake of the publication by a Danish newspaper of cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad last fall. Muhammad Army : A group made up mostly of Iraqi former Baathists and a few foreign fighters, it claimed credit for the 2003 bombing of the United Nations headquarters that killed 23 people, including the organization's chief of mission. 1920 Revolution Brigades : This group, which has claimed responsibility for a number of high-profile kidnappings of Westerners and Iraqis working with U.S. forces, is named for the Iraqi uprising against the British after World War I. The group calls itself the military wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement, another insurgent organization. Conquering Army : A new group that has emerged in the past two months through a series of videos released on the Internet and to regional television networks showing kidnapping victims confessing to various "crimes" such as working with American forces. Swords of the Righteous : A previously unknown group that gained prominence by claiming responsibility, in videos, for the kidnapping of four Christian Peacemaker workers, one of whom, Tom Fox of Virginia, was found dead March 10. Iraqi Vengeance Brigades : A little-known group that has released videos showing American journalist Jill Carroll, who was abducted in Baghdad in early January. |
Link |
Iraq |
Profusion of groups helps insurgency to survive |
2005-12-02 |
Here is a small sampling of the insurgent groups that have claimed responsibility for attacks on Americans and Iraqis in the last few months: Supporters of the Sunni People. The Men's Faith Brigade. The Islamic Anger. Al Baraa bin Malik Suicide Brigade. The Tawid Lions of Abdullah ibn al Zobeir. While some of them, like the Suicide Brigade, claim an affiliation with Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia and Al Qaeda claims them, others say they have acted alone or under the guidance of another group. While on Wednesday President Bush promised nothing less than "complete victory" over the Iraqi insurgency, the apparent proliferation of militant groups offers perhaps the best explanation as to why the insurgency has been so hard to destroy. The Bush administration has long maintained, and Mr. Bush reiterated in his speech Wednesday, that the insurgency comprises three elements: disaffected Sunni Arabs, or "rejectionists"; former Hussein government loyalists; and foreign-born terrorists affiliated with Al Qaeda. Iraqi and American officials in Iraq say the single most important fact about the insurgency is that it consists not of a few groups but of dozens, possibly as many as 100. And it is not, as often depicted, a coherent organization whose members dutifully carry out orders from above but a far-flung collection of smaller groups that often act on their own or come together for a single attack, the officials say. Each is believed to have its own leader and is free to act on its own. Highly visible groups like Al Qaeda, Ansar al Sunna and the Victorious Army Group appear to act as fronts, the Iraqis and the Americans say, providing money, general direction and expertise to the smaller groups, but often taking responsibility for their attacks by broadcasting them across the globe. "The leaders usually don't have anything to do with details," said Abdul Kareem al-Eniezi, the Iraqi minister for national security. "Sometimes they will give the smaller groups a target, or a type of target. The groups aren't connected to each other. They are not that organized." Some experts and officials say there are important exceptions: that Al Qaeda's leaders, for instance, are deeply involved in spectacular suicide bombings, the majority of which are still believed to be carried out by foreigners. They also say some of the smaller groups that claim responsibility for attacks may be largely fictional, made up of ragtag groups of fighters hoping to make themselves seem more formidable and numerous than they really are. But whatever the appearances, American and Iraqi officials agree on the essential structure of the Iraqi insurgency: it is horizontal as opposed to hierarchical, and ad hoc as opposed to unified. They say this central characteristic, similar to that of terrorist organizations in Europe and Asia, is what is making the Iraqi insurgency so difficult to destroy. Attack any single part of it, and the rest carries on largely untouched. It cannot be decapitated, because the insurgency, for the most part, has no head. Only recently, American and Iraqi experts say, have they begun to grasp the new organizational structure that, among other things, is making the insurgency so difficult to stop. "There is no center of gravity, no leadership, no hierarchy; they are more a constellation than an organization," said Bruce Hoffman, a terrorism expert at the Rand Corporation. "They have adopted a structure that assures their longevity." The insurgency's survivability presents perhaps the most difficult long-term challenge for the Iraqi government and American commanders. The primary military goal of groups like Al Qaeda and Ansar al Sunna is not to win but simply not to lose; to hang on until the United States runs out of will and departs. Even killing or capturing the leader of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, many Iraqi and American officials say, will not end the rebellion. In a war as murky as the one in Iraq, details about the workings of the insurgency are fleeting and few. But what is available suggests that the movement is often atomized and fragmented, but no less lethal for being so. A review of the dozens of proclamations made by jihadi groups and posted on Islamist Web sites found more than 100 different groups that either claimed to be operating in Iraq or were being claimed by an umbrella group like Al Qaeda. Most of the Internet postings were located and translated by the SITE Institute, the Washington group that, among other things, tracks insurgent activity on the Web. Of the groups found by SITE, 59 were claimed by Al Qaeda and 36 by Ansar al Sunna. Eight groups claimed to be operating under the direction of the Victorious Army Group, and five groups said they were operating under the 20th of July Revolution Brigade. The complex nature of the insurgency was illustrated on Oct. 24, when three suicide bombers, one driving a cement mixer full of TNT, staged a coordinated attack on the Palestine and Sheraton Hotels in central Baghdad. The attack was one of the most sophisticated yet, with the first explosion ripping open a breach in the hotels' barriers. That allowed the cement mixer to come within a few yards of the Sheraton before being hung up in barbed wire. An American solider opened fire on the driver of the truck, and the bomb was apparently detonated by remote control. Twelve people died, and American and Iraqis agreed later that the attack had come very close to bringing both towers down. Within 24 hours, Al Qaeda, in an Internet posting viewed round the world, boasted of its role in attacking the "crusaders and their midgets." But in the small print of the group's proclamation, Al Qaeda declared that the attack had actually been carried out by three separate groups: the Attack Brigade, the Rockets Brigade and Al Baraa bin Malik Suicide Brigade. The three groups, the Qaeda notice said, had acted in "collaboration," with some fighters conducting surveillance while others provided cover fire. Rita Katz, the director of SITE, which is now working under a United States government contract to investigate militant groups, said the attack on the Palestine and Sheraton Hotels had probably been planned and directed at the highest levels of Al Qaeda. The leaders may have brought the three "brigades" together to stage the attack, she said, and probably provided expertise as well as the suicide bombers themselves. "This was something that was coordinated at the highest level," she said. But for most of the attacks, such top-down coordination is uncommon, Ms. Katz and American and Iraqi officials said. Most, they said, are planned and carried out by the local groups, with the leaders of the umbrella groups having little or no knowledge of them. American and Iraqi experts also say there appear to be important distinctions among the umbrella groups. While Islamist groups like Al Qaeda and Ansar al Sunna attack military and civilian targets at will, other organizations, like the Victorious Army Group, which is believed to be associated with followers of Saddam Hussein's government, appear to attack only American or Iraqi solders. In recent months, some insurgent groups have refined their target goals even further. In July, Al Qaeda said it had formed a group called the Omar Brigade to focus on killing members of Shiite militias like the Badr Brigade. Since then, the Omar Brigade has taken responsibility for dozens of killings. Some insurgent groups appear to be limited to exclusive geographic areas. The Zi al Nourein Brigade, whose exploits are regularly proclaimed by Ansar al Sunna, appears to operate almost exclusively in Mosul, in northern Iraq. Each week, more such groups announce their presence. "Following Allah's orders to his worshipers, the mujahedeen, to join together and stand in one line against Allah's enemies," a posting on the Internet said July 12, "Al Miqaeda Brigade Groups announced that they are joining Ansar al Sunna." American and Iraqi officials say they are not always sure that the groups' public claims of responsibility are valid. It is an old trick that guerrilla movements use to exaggerate their size and power. Other experts who track jihadi Web sites say it is possible to authenticate the claim of an attack by a particular group. Most of the claims of responsibility appear on Web sites that tightly control access to their message boards. The array of insurgent groups has prompted competition among them. On the streets of Ramadi, the violent city west of Baghdad, a leaflet found on the street, signed by a group called the Islamic Army, said that "the growing number of mujahedeen groups, which grew in number when the people realized their value," had caused confusion about which group was speaking for which. The Islamic Army leaflet read like an advertisement offered by a product manager worried about imitators. "We are asking people to reject any statement signed by the Sajeel Battalion of the Islamic Army that does not carry their slogan or seal," the leaflet said. One question that remains unsettled is the nationalities of suicide bombers. American and Iraqi officials have long said they believe that the majority of suicide attacks are carried out by foreigners. In June, in an apparent answer to that question, Al Qaeda announced the formation of the Ansar Brigade, which it described as an all-Iraqi suicide unit. Since then, the Ansar Brigade has taken responsibility for few such attacks. One place where the Ansar Brigade did apparently strike was Jordan last month, when suicide bombers struck three hotels in Amman. The police there determined that Iraqis had carried out the attack. In a message posted on the Internet, Al Qaeda announced that the Ansar Brigade, its Iraqi suicide group, had carried out the attack. |
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