Warning: Undefined array key "rbname" in /data/rantburg.com/www/pgrecentorg.php on line 14
Hello !

Abu Mussab Al Zarqawi

Abu Mussab Al Zarqawi

al-Qaeda in Iraq

Iraq-Jordan

20040620

Link

Iraq

Richard Fernandez: Fighting Entropy 1

2015-05-18

Most of us have watched movies where a mysterious threat attacks an unsuspecting community. They may be vampires ravaging an Alaskan town or a blob-like being swallowing a town. Typically the defenders, at first confident, are rapidly dismayed when they find that police firearms have little effect against the creatures. With that realization the characters go from complacent to desperate in a few minutes of movie time until the hunted survivors are forced by desperation to try an outlandish theory from a crackpot who has a peculiar insight into the nature of the monsters. Sometimes real life resembles a horror movie, as in the present instance when Westphalian states find to their surprise that the state-killing bullets in their arsenal can't kill Islamic extremism. Perhaps the epitome of such weapons is the precision guided missile-firing drone or its equivalent, the special forces raiding team directed by the signals intelligence wizardry of the NSA. This targeted force is like Zeus' thunderbolt; it is inconceivably potent, almost unimaginably effective. Surely such a thing can destroy what the president of the United States aims it at. The United States has killed Saddam Hussein, Abu Mussab Al-Zarqawi, and Osama bin Laden. It was instrumental in the death of Imad Mughniyah. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the current head of ISIS, is probably lying crippled in some safe house never to walk again from the effects of a March 18, 2015 airstrike. And now a US special operations team has killed one of the next in line, the chief of ISIS' oil smuggling business, its "chief financial officer", a Tunisian with the nom de guerre Abu Sayyaf. ...Now that America has put a bullet through the body, head and wallet surely all that is left is to watch ISIS die. SECDEF Ashton Carter believes they've dealt it a serious blow. But others are not so sure. "Michael Weiss, author of "ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror," said Abu Sayyaf was largely unknown to close observers of the organization." Killing him won't hurt it any more than its been hurt before. ...But like the monster in the movie, it's taken "three billion electro-volts of energy and it's still coming on"! Why have none of the previous heavy blows slowed ISIS or any of the affiliated rebel groups down? Why is the jihadi organism inexplicably resistant to leadership disruptions, whether caused by drone strikes or the murderous work of rivals from other factions? How can it stand against the Olympian thunderbolt? This is an important question to answer. It's resistant because it is not a state.

Link

Africa North

GSPC requests aid from Zarqawi, sez group weakened since Abu Ibrahim killed

2006-05-03

Algeria's most feared militant Islamic group has pleaded for the help of Al Qaeda's chief in Iraq, Abu Mussab Al Zarqawi, following painful setbacks by the army. The Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, led by Abu Mussab Abdel Wadoud Abdel Malek, sent a letter to Zarqawi hailing his activities in fighting the enemies of Islam and declaring Taliban leader Mullah Omar as the "caliphate of Muslims". The letter urged Zarqawi to "support brothers in Algerian jihad groups by making sermons that call for defeating the tyrants". The letter stressed that the jihad movement in Algeria "has been going through difficult phases for the past years, but the crisis got worse in the last two years following the killing of Salafi movement leader Abu Ibrahim, which caused an earthquake that could have eliminated the jihad trend altogether if it wasn't for the commitment of the mujahideen". Abu Ibrahim, who succeeded GSPC founder Hassan Hattab, was killed two years ago in a major operation by the army against the movement, which counts at present 700 gunmen in its ranks. The letter blamed the weakness of the jihad trend on "conspiracies weaved against the Salafi movement in Algeria", in reference to the Peace and National Reconciliation Pact proposed by President Abdel Aziz Bouteflika and approved by 97 percent of Algerians in a nationwide referendum. Government forces have stepped up a crackdown on the GSPC that appears to be living its last days after many of its field commanders and members abandoned armed activity and accepted Bouteflika's peace pact for ending the country's crisis. Founder Hassan Hattab, who abandoned the group a few years ago, is highly critical of its new leaders, further weakening the movement. In a recent statement Hattab disavowed himself from the "remnants of the armed Islamic movement who rejected national reconciliation".

Link

Terror Networks

Excerpts and bio from Yahya al-Libbi video

2005-12-22

Onscreen Title: "In the name of Allah the Merciful, the Compassionate. We are the army of Allah." Sheikh Abu Yahya Al-Libbi: "The Muslims have the right to rejoice on this day. But, brothers in faith, how can we be happy? How can we be joyous? How can we be cheerful? How can happiness possibly enter our hearts when we watch our nation being torn apart by the spears of the criminals, and being slashed by the swords of the infidels, in the east and the west. "Brother in Islam, let us go over the entire world. Let us look at the condition of the Muslims in Palestine. Let us see the condition of the Muslims in Palestine, the land of the Prophet Muhammad's nocturnal journey, where a martyr falls every day, where a prisoner is captured every day, where houses are demolished and women arrested every day. Oh brother in Islam, this is Palestine, the heart of Islam. Ah, the Land of Paleostine, where Moose limb culture is in full flower, where Dire Revenge™ is the highest of values, where people are dragged from courtrooms and executed in the streets, where the Fearless Lions of Islam™ venture forth to slaughter 4-year-olds in their beds... "Who are those who desecrate it? Who have taken control over it? Who are those who torment its people so severely? Those who were 'smitten with humiliation and misery,' and 'incurred the wrath of Allah.' They are the offspring of the apes and the pigs. They are the ones who are tormenting our brothers there. Somehow those Jews just keep thumping the Lions of Islam™. When attacked by multiple Arab armies they treacherously defeat them on the field of battle, refusing to be driven into the sea. When confronted with the Arabs' brilliant negotiators they perfidiously expect them to adhere to their agreements. When attacked by stealth and deception they counterattack. They despoil the very deserts, the trademark of the Arab, making them bloom. Oh, the humiliation! Oh, the perfidy! "Let us look at our brothers in Iraq and in Afghanistan, where the infidel Crusader forces have brought their cavalry and infantry. They are destroying their homes, killing their sons, and arresting their elderly and their women, with whom they are filling their prisons in Abu Ghureib, Bagram, Qandahar, and Guantanamo. There the Lions of Islam™ show at their very best, kidnapping men, women, and children. It's in Iraq that they can film themselves waving guns and cutting people's heads off. It's there that they can briefly take over entire cities, havens where they can set fire to captured corpses, beat women, force men to adhere to their Islamic standards, maintain their torture chambers and their bomb factories. And then, when they're feeling comfortable, it's there that they can make their Glorious Arab Stand™ against the inifdel Crusaders™, who shoot them down like dogs. "The first signs of victory have begun to appear on the horizon, in Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, and Chechnya. "Yes, brethren and sistern! In Iraq they have their own government, elected by The Masses™. And in Afghanistan they have their own government, elected by The Masses™. In Paleostine Yasser is stable forevermore, gangs of hard boyz rule the streets, and elections resemble riots. And in Chechnya, Mashkadov is dead, Khattab is dead, al-Walid is dead, and Shamil continues the fine tradition of Islamic warfare by taking civilians hostage and slaughtering children. What pride the Moumineen must feel! "Indeed, the price of victory is steep, and we pay it with our blood, and with our body parts, with our homes, our fields, and our crops. "We pay the price with our children, whom we raise up to be thrown away in Glorious Jihad™ without ever having made any contribution to human society. We pay the price with our societies, which remain brutal and primitive, even midieval, while the rest of the world embraces the rights of the individual and the comforts of prosperity. The only field where we can compete is in force of arms and we're not very good at that!" "But what lies in the future, oh Muslims? There will be glory for those who want it. There will be victory for those who seek it. There will be freedom for those who desire it. "It will be an Islamic freedom, something not recognizable as freedom to those not in the Islamic club. It will be the freedom of the Ummah to dispose of its members as it pleases, the freedom of the Caliph to rule Believers™ and Unbelievers alike with an iron fist. It will be the freedom to extend the glories of Islam — the exquisite architecture surrounded by the squalor and filth, disease and brutality that are characteristic of our world!" "Victory is inevitable, in spite of the infidels, the apostates, and the hypocrites. America's nose will be rubbed in the mud. America will be humiliated just like the empires before it. "All they have to do is let us do it, brethren and sistern! Even now their rulers are more concerned with our rights than with their citizens' safety, with their own careers than with their children's survival! In time they will crumble, as they have crumbled over and over in the past, until the Flag of Islam™ flies over the White House. The justice of the Caliph and his Grand Vizir will replace their courts! The rule of imams and qazis and muftis will replace the governance of their Congress! Today's "liberated" American women are tomorrow's dancing girls, sexual playthings for the Lions of Islam™! Today's game-playing American youth are tomorrow's janissaries! The riches of America are there for the picking because they're too lazy to defend them! "This is the religion of Allah, of the one and only. When He desires something, He says 'become' and it comes into being. So what reason do we have to despair or be afraid? We have only two options: either we live a life of pride and strength in our religion and on our land, doing whatever we want, and worshipping our God as He ordered us, or else we are destined to Paradise." According to http://www.alarabiya.net/Articles/2005/12/19/19613.htm , Sheikh Yahya Al-Libbi, as well as Yunis Al-Sahrawi (Yunis of the desert), are aliases used by Muhammad Hassan Qayed. The report also named fellow escapees, including Kuwaiti Mahmoud Ahmad Muhammad (aka Momar Al-Farouq), who is an important figure in Al-Qaeda; Syrian Abdallah Hashemi; and Saudi Muhammad al-Qahtani. Qayed studied religious law in Mauritania. Last month he sent a letter to Abu Mussab Al-Zarqawi that was published on the Internet.

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

500 al-Qaeda members recruited from Zarqa since late 1990s

2005-12-05

Jordan could face an increasing Al Qaida-aligned insurgency fueled by lack of economic opportunity in the kingdom. "We're so poor, we don't even have a Mom. The best we can do is a lady who comes in twice a week!" "Us, too! Let's go kill some infidels!" "Hokay." The International Crisis Group said the Nov. 9 coordinated Al Qaida suicide attacks in Amman could be the first of a wave of Islamic insurgency strikes. The Brussels-based ICG said in a report that many young Jordanians, including those who trained in Afghanistan up to three years ago, have been attracted to Al Qaida's insurgency in neighboring Iraq. "Yeah! The money's real good! Last week I ate something!" The report said 500 Jordanians trained by Al Qaida and Taliban in Afghanistan in the late 1990s came from Zarqa, home of Abu Mussab Al Zarqawi, today Al Qaida's chief in Iraq. Other Al Qaida fighters, including those who fought the United States in Iraq, came from Salt. "The general public's lack of representation and shortage of economic opportunities has fed into a romanticized notion of jihad that has sent a steady trickle of young men across the border to join the fight against the U.S. in Iraq," Robert Malley, director of ICG's Middle East and North Africa program, said. "The November attacks are a preview of what's to come unless the government gets serious about real reform." "Gosh, Mahmoud! The idea of blowing up! It's so romantic!" "And my economic opportunities are really short!" "Let's run off to jihad!" "Can we have sex first?"

Link

Iraq

Boomer babe kills 5

2005-09-29

A woman suicide bomber blew herself up at an Iraqi police recruitment centre yesterday, killing five people in an attack claimed by Al Qaeda’s Iraq frontman Abu Mussab Al Zarqawi. In Tal Afar in northern Iraq, a woman pushed her way into a crowd and blew herself up at a police recruitment centre in the first insurgent attack in the there since Iraqi forces announced the end of military operations 10 days ago. It was believed to be the first attack by a female suicide bomber since the end of the 2003 US-led war to oust Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. Speaking from his hospital bed, Jumaa Mohammed, one of the 35 wounded, said the attack was carried out by a woman wearing Islamic dress. “It was a young woman. She pushed her way through the crowd and then there was an explosion.” Zarqawi’s group claimed responsibility in an Internet statement that could not be verified. “An honorable sister from the martyrdom-seeking Al-Baraa bin Malek Brigade ... carried out a heroic attack against a group of volunteers to the ranks of apostasy ... at an apostate recruitment centre in Tal Afar,” it said. The two US soldiers were killed and another wounded in a bomb attack near Safwan in southern Iraq near the Kuwaiti border, while a Marine was killed in a shooting attack in Ramadi on Tuesday. An Iraqi policeman and a civilian were also killed when they were caught in gunfire against a Jordanian embassy car, an official said in Amman. British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw also warned of “more dark moments” in Iraq. Despite the relentless violence, an opinion poll found that more than 80 per cent of Iraqis would vote in the October 15 referendum on the draft constitution, a key stage in the post-Saddam political transition. At the same time, 49 per cent said they believed the charter expressed the will of the people, against only 30 per cent who said “no”. However, 47 per cent said they were not totally satisfied that all ethnic and religious groups were fully able to take part in drafting the constitution, a document which has deeply divided the country’s ethnic groups. The survey put electricity shortages at the top of Iraqis’ everyday concerns, followed by ethnic tension and religious tension. Foreign nations with troops in Iraq hope the consitution vote and December’s elections will pave the way for a withdrawal of their forces once Iraqi security is deemed competent enough. As part of that plan, US forces handed over military control of Karbala to Iraqi forces, making it only the second city where local forces are fully responsible for security following Najaf.

Link

Iraq-Jordan

The al-Douri factor

2005-07-22

AT FIRST GLANCE, Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri does not appear to be the most likely candidate to serve as an ally of militant Islamists. The former vice chairman of the Iraqi Baath Party's Revolutionary Command Council, al-Douri was the only member of Saddam's inner circle not in Baghdad when the city fell, having had the luck or foresight to set up his headquarters in the northern city of Mosul. One of the earliest members of the Iraqi Baath party and one of the three survivors of the 1968 coup that brought the Baathists to power inside Iraq, al-Douri has emerged since the fall of Saddam Hussein as a key leader within the insurgency. As Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz explained in June 2004, the insurgency "was led by Saddam Hussein up until his capture in December. It's been led, in part, by his No. 2 or 3, Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, since then." No one disputes al-Douri's brutality or his reputation for ruthlessness. Following the first Gulf War, al Douri was one of the chief architects of the campaign to suppress the uprising that followed the conflict in the south. In addition, he helped to supervise the al-Anfal campaign against the Kurds during the Iraq-Iran War, including the use of chemical weapons against Kurdish settlements in 1987. Yet evidence has surfaced since the fall of the insurgency that in addition to assuming command of at least some of the remnants of the Iraqi military, security, and intelligence forces as well as the surviving Baath party cadres, al-Douri has also been able to maintain ties with the Islamist elements of the insurgency. The first postwar evidence of this emerged in October 2003, when NBC reported that two captured members of Ansar al-Islam revealed that al-Douri was helping to coordinate their attacks inside Iraq. According to the U.S. State Department, Ansar al-Islam "is closely allied with al-Qa'ida and Abu Mu'sab al-Zarqawi's group" and "has become one of the leading groups engaged in anti-Coalition attacks." To many observers, this seemed to be an odd alliance, since in addition to being a Baathist, al-Douri was also associated with the Qadri and Rifai schools of Iraqi Sufism, which were viewed with contempt by Ansar al-Islam prior to the war. Yet these same observers forget that from 1993 onwards al-Douri headed up the Iraqi regime's al-Hamlah al-Imaniyyah (Return to Faith) campaign which loosened earlier restrictions on religion and substantially reduced earlier Islamist opposition to Saddam's rule. Also, as a regular speaker at Iraq's Popular Islamic conferences geared at ingratiating Saddam to radical Islamist groups, al-Douri could successfully present himself to Ansar al-Islam as an individual with solid Islamist credentials, whatever his Sufi leanings. Reports of ties between al-Douri and Islamist groups intensified following the December 2003 capture of Saddam Hussein, culminating in a May 2004 report by the Yemeni Hadramoot Arabic Network that was translated as follows by the SITE Institute, a non-profit organization that monitors information relating to terrorist networks: ... The Mujahideen had made preparations to greet them until it was possible to bring them together with Zarqawi, and the "Heroes' meeting" took place ... In an atmosphere full of enthusiasm and high spirits for everybody, with the company of his three sons and a number of Mujahideen, Izzat Ibrahim Al Douri took off to meet with Abu Mussab Al Zarqawi. At their arrival, the Mujahideen greeted them amidst calls of "Allah Akbar" (3 times) [God is Greater]. Then the sound of gunfire was heard as Zarqawi rushed out, surrounded by the Mujahideen, covered by the dust of their blessed journey," according to the network. It added that, at the sight of Zarqawi, Izzat Ibrahim shouted: "You are the commander and we are your soldiers." His son Ahmad handed him a copy of the Quran. His father took it, placed his hand and the hands of his sons on it, and they made an oath to God, pledging allegiance to Zarqawi in the Jihad until victory or martyrdom, in good and bad times." In the end, the network stated that, "the meeting was brief. Izzat's sons were placed with the Mujahideen, and the father was placed in the ranks of Zarqawi and other Mujahideen leaders. That day witnessed distribution of hundreds of automatic weapons and large quantities of ammunition on the Mujahideen." The general account of the meeting appears to have been confirmed following month, when senior officials told Fox News that al-Douri was "an avowed and 'fanatic' Islamist whose two sons have sworn 'fealty' to Usama bin Laden." According to these senior officials, al-Douri "is in league with Zarqawi and Al Qaeda elements." Whatever the nature of his past Sufism, al-Douri had pledged himself and his followers to the most extreme Salafist elements of the Iraqi insurgency. Such current ties to al Qaeda and its allies raise the inevitable question of whether or not any existed prior to the war. According to a March 2002 New Yorker article by Jeffrey Goldberg, another Iraqi imprisoned intelligence officer named Qassem Hussein Muhammed, who had been captured by Kurdish forces en route to the Ansar al-Islam enclave, had claimed that Abu Wael was "the actual decision-maker" for the group and "an employee of the Mukhabarat," the Arabic name for Iraqi intelligence. While traveling through northern Iraq in 2002, Jonathan Schanzer, a specialist in radical Islamic movements at the Washington Institute for Near East policy, met a former member of Iraqi intelligence named Abdul Rahman al-Shamari, who had been imprisoned by the Kurds since March 2002. Al Shamari revealed a wealth of purported information about pre-war ties between Iraq and al Qaeda, including details about the activities of Colonel Saadan Mahmoud Abdul Latif, a member of Ansar al-Islam's ruling council far better known as Abu Wael. Al-Shamari went even further than Muhammed, claiming that Abu Wael had married one of al-Douri's cousins and had even met with Saddam Hussein "four or five times." Claims of Iraqi assistance to Ansar al-Islam are even supported by the 9/11 Commission which--despite having been widely reported as having "debunked" claims of such a link--also noted cryptically: "There are indications that by then [2001] the Iraqi regime tolerated and may even have helped Ansar al-Islam against the common Kurdish enemy." One possible instance of this "help" was noted very early on in the existence of Ansar al-Islam's predecessor Jund al-Islam. Dr. Barhim Salih, the then-prime minister for the Kurdistan Regional Government in Sulaymania, noted in the Washington Institute for Near East Policy's PolicyWatch in October 2001 that a group of Iraqi Sunni Arabs were working with Jund al-Islam from Mosul, a city well within Saddam Hussein's sphere of control. Interestingly enough, a CIA assessment leaked to the New York Times in March 2003 noted the existence of an al Qaeda cell in Mosul which had been able to organize freely during the same time that al-Douri had shifted his base of operations to the northern city. While smaller than the main al Qaeda contingents in Baghdad and Iraqi Kurdistan, the Times reported that the Mosul cell and its counterparts might be planning to attack U.S. forces trying to stabilize Iraq after the war, a line of analysis which seems to have panned out. An official who had read the analysis told the Times that the CIA assessment "doesn't make a big deal of Al Qaeda and Saddam" but noted that "There's a confluence of interests, to be sure. And that's dead Americans." In retrospect, this seems to have been a convergence that Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri understood all too well. Dan Darling is a counter-terrorism consultant for the Manhattan Institute's Center for Tactical Counter-Terrorism.

Link

Iraq-Jordan

5 Al-Qaeda-Linked Suspects Go On Trial in Jordan

2005-07-13

Jordanian suspects linked to Al-Qaeda’s front man in Iraq, Abu Mussab Al-Zarqawi, went on trial here yesterday on charges of plotting attacks on tourist and intelligence targets, judicial sources said. The suspects, including one who is on the run, face two counts of conspiracy to carry out “terrorist acts” and the illegal possession of explosives for use in illicit operations, according to a copy of the charge sheet obtained by AFP. One of the suspects, Ossama Abu Hazim, is said to have befriended Zarqawi accomplice Moqdad Mohammed Al-Debbas in Syria in 2003 where they discussed ways of joining the insurgency in Iraq, the charge sheet said. Another suspect, Hatem Nsur, is said to have infiltrated Iraq where he trained in the use of explosives and met the fugitive Mohammed Qteishat, with whom he concocted a plot to attack tourists in Jordan, it said. Debbas, also a Jordanian, was tried and sentenced in March for involvement in plotting an attack with Jordanian-born Zarqawi against the offices of the Jordanian military attache in Baghdad. Qteishat is also linked to Zarqawi, according to judicial sources. A chemical expert testifying before Jordan’s State Security Court said yesterday that explosives found in possession of 24-year-old Saudi national, Fahd Al-Fuheiki, were of “high-grade military quality”, according to judicial sources. Fuheiki is standing trial at the SSC on charges of planning a suicide attack at Jordan’s Karameh border post with Iraq that was supposed to coincide with a similar bombing against US soldiers stationed at Iraq’s Teribil crossing point in December 2004, the sources said. Najeh Azzam, a chemical expert at the General Intelligence Department, told the tribunal that he had been given eight plastic envelopes containing explosives by the prosecution and a thorough examination determined “they were of high-grade military quality”. “The powder substance I examined on Dec. 5, 2004, are considered one of the strongest military explosives and are extremely destructive and dangerous,” he said. He pointed out that the explosives could also be detonated from a distance.

Link

Europe

Spain Arrests Would-Be Suicide Bombers

2005-06-16

More detail on yesterday's busts... Spanish police arrested 16 suspected militants yesterday, including followers of Abu Mussab Al-Zarqawi and men preparing to become suicide bombers in Iraq, the Interior Ministry said. It was the second European swoop in two days against suspected backers of the Iraqi insurgency, following Germany's arrest of three Iraqis on Tuesday. Eleven of the suspects in Spain were followers of Zarqawi, Al-Qaeda's leader in Iraq, the Interior Ministry said. "Many of them expressed their will to become martyrs for Islam, demonstrating they are extremely radical and dangerous," the ministry said in a statement. It said they belonged to "an established network in our country, tied to the terrorist organization Ansar Al-Islam/Zarqawi network". The other five were suspected of aiding the cell that carried out the Madrid train bombings of March 11, 2004, which killed 191 people and wounded 1,900 three days before a general election. One Madrid train bombing suspect who escaped police is believed already to have carried out a suicide attack in Iraq some time between May 12-19, the ministry said. He was named as Mohamed Afalah, who police say fled the scene when seven prime suspects for the train bombing blew themselves up on April 3, 2004 after being surrounded by police in a suburban Madrid apartment. The blast also killed a special police agent. Police and intelligence sources say Iraqi militants have recruited fighters in several European countries to join the insurgency against the Iraqi government and the US-led coalition supporting it. Investigations in Spain, Italy, Germany and Sweden suggest Ansar Al-Islam — a group with which the United States linked Zarqawi before the Iraq war — has emerged as the most prominent militant group engaged in fundraising and recruitment. A French intelligence chief said last month that five young men from a single Paris district had already died in Iraq, one in a suicide attack. The ministry statement said potential suicide bombers in Spain were linked to a central operation in Syria dedicated to "recruiting holy warriors (using the Internet) and sending them to Iraq with the goal of committing suicide attacks against the coalition forces". It said the two main recruiters, both Moroccans, were arrested by Syria in May 2004 and sent back to Morocco.

Link

Iraq-Jordan

Insurgent Thunder Greets Iraq's Offensive

2005-05-30

Thousands of Iraqi forces yesterday threw a security net over Baghdad to snare insurgents, who quickly struck back with a string of car bombings said to have been masterminded by Al-Qaeda's Abu Mussab Al-Zarqawi. Four car bombs in and around the capital killed 16 people, most of them security personnel, in a swift response to Iraq's widest homegrown clampdown since the fall of Saddam Hussein over two years ago. Nobody expected them to throw up their hands and surrender... Nine soldiers taking part in "Operation Lightning" died in a suicide car bombing at their roadblock just south of the capital, while two policemen were killed when a suicide car bomber targeted their patrol in southwestern Baghdad. In western Baghdad, a car bomb targeting police commandos killed three people and wounded 20, an Interior Ministry source said, adding that police had then fought a firefight with men in the area. An earlier suicide bombing near the Oil Ministry left two dead, while violence elsewhere claimed the lives of a British soldier and seven Iraqis. Insurgent attacks nationwide have claimed the lives of around 700 people so far this month, following the swearing in of Iraq's first democratically elected post-Saddam government. Suicide car booms remain the weapon of choice, not only because they've got the fodder to carry them out, but also because they're so Islamic... "Squadrons and brigades directed by the sheikh of the mujahedeen Abu Mussab Al-Zarqawi yesterday launched an operation ... planned and supervised by our sheikh," said an Internet statement attributed to his group. The operation was a reply to the "aborted encirclement plan in Baghdad announced by the Iraqi ministers of defense and interior", a reference to the security net expected to involve up to 40,000 Iraqi security forces that was launched the same day. It also claimed the deadly suicide bombing at the roadblock outside Baghdad. That's actually not an indication that Zark is alive and/or well. It's just an indication that his name has value to the turbans... It was not possible to verify the authenticity of the statement, the latest in a series of some times conflicting messages about the health of the Jordanian-born militant and his role in the insurgency. Nevertheless, the government claimed it had already captured hundreds of insurgents. So here's the meat of the article... "Search operations and raids have allowed us to arrest 500 people and find arms caches in several houses," said spokesman Leith Kubba, adding that "we are expecting reactions but this will have no effect on the general course of the operation." If the bastards weren't vicious and tenacious, it wouldn't be necessary to turn out 40,000 men to hunt them down. Good luck to our guys and to the Iraqis...

Link

Iraq-Jordan

US Kills Foreign Insurgents in Iraq

2005-04-13

Boy! When did that start? US forces raided a foreign insurgents' weapons smuggling ring yesterday near the Iraqi town of Qaim along the Syrian border, killing an unknown number of insurgents, the US military said. Residents reported gunbattles and explosions near the remote border town and hospital officials said at least nine people were killed. Insurgents opened fire on US troops during yesterday's raid and a number of foreign militants, including at least one bomber, were killed, the military said in a statement. No US forces were injured. The raid occurred a day after insurgents tried unsuccessfully to ram three car bombs, including one fire truck, into a military base in Qaim. But military officials said the attack was not related to the raid. Residents reported violent clashes before dawn yesterday in the Ish village just north of Qaim, although it was unclear if the violence was related to the raid. Without providing details, the terror group Al-Qaeda in Iraq, led by Jordanian militant Abu Mussab Al-Zarqawi, claimed responsibility for the Qaim clashes. The claim, posted on the Internet, couldn't be verified. Hamid Al-Alousi, director of Qaim hospital, said his facility had received nine corpses and nearly two dozen wounded in the Ish village violence. Residents of the village said a dozen more people were buried in the area and not taken to the hospital. There was no way to independently confirm their claim. US military officials added that two other raids in the area in the last week resulted in the capture of smugglers who "confessed to bringing weapons, foreign fighters and money for terrorists across the Syrian border into Iraq."

Link

Iraq-Jordan

Pakistani, Iraqi officials kidnapped

2005-04-11

Two groups claimed yesterday to have kidnapped a Pakistani Embassy employee and a senior Iraqi police official during separate abductions in Baghdad, while the country's most feared terrorist organization issued an Internet statement rejecting any efforts by the new government to make peace. The previously unknown Omar ibn Khattab group claimed responsibility for kidnapping Malik Mohammed Javed, a consular and community affairs employee, Pakistan's Foreign Ministry said. Javed went missing late Saturday after he left his Baghdad home to attend prayers at a nearby mosque. In a statement, the Pakistani Foreign Ministry said Javed called the embassy to tell them he had not been harmed. The kidnappers' demands weren't immediately clear. The kidnapping comes nearly nine months after insurgents abducted and killed two Pakistanis working for a Kuwaiti company in Iraq. Their abductors had demanded that Pakistan — a predominantly Muslim nation — promise not to send any troops to Iraq. Also yesterday, the terrorist group Al-Qaeda in Iraq, led by Jordanian militant Abu Mussab Al-Zarqawi, claimed to have kidnapped and killed Najaf police Brig. Gen. Bassem Mohammed Kadhim Al-Jazaari while he was visiting Baghdad. "He has been interrogated," said the statement, which could not be independently verified. "After his confessions, God's verdict was carried out against him." Interior Ministry official Capt. Ahmed Ismael said Al-Jazaari was kidnapped late Saturday in western Baghdad, but he had no other details. In a separate statement, the same group rejected interim President Jalal Talabani's attempts to reach out to Iraqi insurgents. Talabani's call was not directed at foreign fighters. "Oh, you agents of the Jews and the Christians, we have nothing for you but the sword," the statement said. "We will not stop fighting." In the ongoing battle against Saddam Hussein's former regime, the Iraqi government announced yesterday that security forces had arrested Ibrahim Sabaawi, the son of Saddam's half brother, near Baghdad. The statement said Sabaawi was close to the former regime. "Until his arrest, he had been supporting terrorists and providing them with finances," it said. It was unclear when the arrest took place. Iraq's National Assembly also met and called for relaxing security measures that have snarled traffic and closed much of central Baghdad during their sessions. The government must still approve the request. Many residents have complained about the increased security in a city already under tight control. Some lawmakers said yesterday they had been insulted and mistreated by Iraqi police at checkpoints, and one female lawmaker said weapons had been confiscated by police. "These measures are highly exaggerated and they hinder the work of the employees and the movement of the citizens," Parliament Speaker Hajim Al-Hassani said. "We asked the security officials to relax these measures." Qassim Dawoud, Iraq's minister of state for national security, said the measures were necessary as long as the assembly continued to convene at the same location. Officials have proposed moving to a new building being used by the Defense Ministry, but it was unclear when they would begin meeting there. There next session was scheduled for today at the city's tightly controlled convention center. Underscoring security concerns, a car bomb exploded yesterday near a US convoy in Baghdad, injuring four civilians, Iraqi police Lt. Ali Hussein said.

Link

Arabia

Soddies say Qatar hit means al-Qaeda's weak in the Kingdom

2005-03-21

The suicide bombing in Doha, Qatar took place three days after the airing of the taped speech of Al-Qaeda leader Saleh Al-Aufi. The target was a Western institution. Some analysts say Al-Qaeda is losing its strong image of power in Saudi Arabia and is breaking up. Terrorism specialist and researcher Faris ibn Hizam said that one could sense from Aufi's speech that he was not aware of what was going on in the country. "He did not talk about the recent events in Riyadh, nor did he elaborate on the attack on the Ministry of Interior last December," said Hizam. He said that that was a clear message that Al-Qaeda was breaking up and dissolving. In his speech, Aufi urged the followers and admirers of Al-Qaeda in the Gulf states to start moving and help back up Al-Qaeda. He started off with Qatar when he said "we urge our brothers Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, the UAE and all the Gulf states close to Iraq to help their brothers, each in his county by destroying machines, soldiers, bases and planes of the Crusaders". That was one of the reasons why Al-Qaeda was going Gulfwide under the leadership of Al-Zarqawi and with the slogan of "Facing Americans". Hizam said that Aufi showed weakness when he pledged allegiance to Al-Qaeda's leader in Iraq Abu Mussab Al-Zarqawi. The statement by Aufi does not show whether there is any sign of the presence of Al-Qaeda cells in those countries. However, there could be a cell waiting for a deadline to strike. The Qatar explosion may have something to do with that. Hizam believes that there may be only remnants of Al-Qaeda in Saudi Arabia who are not well organized and that they may lose the right to be called an organization. "Beside a few cells in the Western region and Riyadh scattered here and there, there are no good signs of the presence of a well organized group in the Kingdom and we can say that the organization has come to an end," said Hizam. That was one of the reasons why Al-Qaeda was going Gulfwide under the leadership of Al-Zarqawi and with the slogan of "Facing Americans".

Link

Warning: Undefined property: stdClass::$T in /data/rantburg.com/www/pgrecentorg.php on line 132
-12 More