Recent Appearances...

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Hello !
Recent Appearances...

Abu Abdul Rahman al-Najdi

al-Qaeda

Iraq

20031012

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Syrian Army strikes jihadist gathering in southern idlib

2020-06-14

[ALMASDARNEWS] A Syrian Arab Army (SAA) scout unit monitored the movements of a group of jihadists moving towards the front-lines in southern Idlib last night, resulting in a powerful attack by the military.

According to a field report from Idlib, the Syrian Arab Army witnessed around midnight, a number of jihadists from the Hurras al-Deen group gathering along the front-lines in al-Bara, as they prepared to launch a new attack on the military’s positions in the Jabal al-Zawiya region.

However,
the man who has no enemies isn't anybody and has never done anything...
before they could launch this attack, the Syrian Arab Army unleashed a heavy attack on the jihadists, killing and wounding several of these murderous Moslems.

The report said the jihadists quickly dispersed after this attack and were forced to abandon their planned raid on the Syrian Arab Army’s positions near the town of Kafr Nabl.

A source said recently that the Syrian Army units operating on the axes of Sahl al-Ghab and the Idlib countryside are in full readiness in anticipation of any emergency that these fronts may witness.

The Hurras al-Deen group is led by a Shura Council, which is dominated by Jordanian fighters and some Gulf members who fought in Afghanistan, Iraq, Bosnia and the Caucasus, and they have a long history of gunnies fighting in the ranks of Al Qaeda, including Jordanian Abu Jalibib, "Abu Tebas," Jordanian Abu Khadija, Abu Abdul Rahman al-Makki, Saif al-Adl and Sami al-Aridi. .

The organization, which has maintained its loyalty to the leader of al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, Ayman al-Zawahiri

...Formerly second in command of al-Qaeda, now the head cheese, occasionally described as the real brains of the outfit. Formerly the Mister Big of Egyptian Islamic Jihad. Bumped off Abdullah Azzam with a car boom in the course of one of their little disputes. Is thought to have composed bin Laden's fatwa entitled World Islamic Front Against Jews and Crusaders. Currently residing in the North Wazoo area assuming he's not dead like Mullah Omar. He lost major face when he ordered the nascent Islamic State to cease and desist and merge with the orthodox al-Qaeda spring, al-Nusra...
, includes foreign jihadists and the organization has also attracted local fighters experienced in the fighting from inside Syria.

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Suspected ISIS fighter from Dearborn captured on Syrian battlefield

2018-07-20

[DetroitNews] A Dearborn man believed to be fighting for the Islamic State has been captured in Syria and could face prosecution in the United States.

Ibraheem Musaibli, 28, is believed to be one of only two male Americans captured alive on an Islamic State battlefield. He was taken into custody by coalition-backed forces this month while trying to flee the Middle Euphrates River Valley in northern Syria, according to the New York Times, which first reported his capture.

Musaibli is being held at an undisclosed facility but authorities are planning to bring him to the United States to face criminal charges.

"This is significant because it's one of the first times the Trump administration would use federal courts to prosecute a returning foreign fighter," Seamus Hughes, deputy director of George Washington University’s Program on Extremism, told The News.

An FBI spokesman in Detroit declined to comment Thursday.

Musaibli is identified by the newspaper as a high-school dropout who helped his father operate a perfume shop before marrying, fathering a son and moving to Yemen. He is believed to have traveled to Syria in 2015.

His sister, Fatima Musaibli, who lives in Dearborn with her parents, told The News that FBI agents searched their home eight days ago.

“They took our phones, laptops, my brother’s old passports, a box full of stuff and said they would return it soon, but it’s been more than a week,” Fatima Musaibli told The News.

She said Ibraheem Musaibli traveled to Yemen a few years ago but couldn't recall why he returned other than to be with his wife and young son.

She said they weren’t notified about her brother’s capture until FBI agents arrived on her doorstep and told her and her sons to sit on the living room floor and not move.

“Ibraheem wouldn’t do this," she said. "He’s not violent and not the type to join such a group. We didn’t believe when my brother Abdullah called saying the New York Times was doing a story.

The roots of the FBI investigation were unclear Thursday.

But sealed federal court records in Detroit indicate FBI agents were investigating a man with a similar last name last year.

In January 2017, FBI agents served a search warrant on Facebook information for an account belonging to Abu Abdul Rahman Al-Musibli. The still-active account lists several friends with the last name Musaibli, including one woman in Dearborn.

The next month, in February 2017, the FBI received 820 pages of information from the man's account, according to a copy of the search warrant return obtained by The News. The document was briefly unsealed last year and obtained by The News before a judge resealed the file.

The man's Facebook account says Al-Musibli lives in Al Bayda in central Yemen, and features one photo of fighters marching on a battlefield with weapons.

Musaibli sent text messages to relatives after leaving Yemen confirming that he was joining the Islamic State, the Times reported, citing two unnamed officials familiar with the investigation.

Musaibli eventually became disillusioned after arriving in Syria, however, and his family tried to negotiate a way out with the FBI, according to the newspaper.

The FBI offered to return Musaibli to the United States if he surrendered. He refused, and negotiations stalled, the newspaper reported.

Link

Africa Subsaharan

JNIM confirms deaths of co-founder, senior leaders in French raids

2018-03-06

[LongWarJournal] In its official claim of responsibility for Friday’s terrorist attacks in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, al Qaeda’s Group for Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM) also confirmed the deaths of several of its senior leaders.

According to the jihadist group, the assault on the French embassy in Ouagadougou was in response to the French raids on Feb. 14 between Boughessa, Mali, and Tinzaouatene, Algeria. In that operation, French forces conducted three simultaneous raids, accompanied with airstrikes, which killed or captured over 20 jihadist fighters. JNIM confirmed the death of six of its leaders, including its co-founder, Hasan al Ansari.

Ansari, along with Mokhtar Belmokhtar and Ahmed el Tilemsi, was also a co-founder of Al Murabitoon. He would later become the second-in-command of the al Qaeda-loyal group, before becoming a co-founder and senior leader within JNIM. In the photo above, Ansari can be seen sitting second from the right between Iyad Ag Ghaly and Abu Abdul Rahman al Sanhaji, another Murabitoon official.

JNIM also confirmed the death of two top Ansar Dine commanders, Malik Ag Wanesnet and Abdullah Ag Oufata. Wanesnet, also known as Abu al Tayyib, was a former colonel in the Malian army before defecting to the jihadist cause and becoming a top military commander for Ansar Dine. Oufata was the former mayor of Boughessa, Mali, before he joined the Tuareg jihadist group. Ansar Dine joined Murabitoon, al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb’s Sahara branch, and Ansar Dine’s Katibat Macina (also known as the Macina Liberation Front) to form JNIM last year.

Link

Iraq

Deputy of Islamic State’s Baghdadi killed in Iraqi airstrike: Intelligence source

2018-02-23

Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) 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 Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
’s deputy supreme leader has been killed in an ~~Arclight~~ airstrike

launched by Iraqi troops, the Lebanese al-Mayadeen TV channel reported on Thursday.

So it might even be true.

Abu Abdul Rahman al-Tamimi al-Eteibi al-Jizrawi, the deputy of His Supreme Immensity, Caliph of the Faithful and Galactic Overlord, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi

...the head of ISIS, or what remains of it, and a veteran of the Abu Graib jailhouse. Looks like a new messiah to bajillions of Moslems, like just another dead-eyed mass murder to the rest of us. So far he has been killed at least four times, though not yet by a stake through the heart...
, was killed in an Iraqi airstrike, the channel quoted an intelligence source as saying without giving details about the circumstances of killing him.

Jizrawi, according to the channel, was killed depending on information collected by the Iraqi intelligence.

Meanwhile,
...back at the palazzo, Count Guido stepped from behind the suit of armor, rapier in hand. Ciccolini snarled and reached for his own weapon...
the Iraqi Media News Agency quoted Hisham al-Hashimi, an expert on terrorist groups affairs, as saying that Jizrawi was killed in a joint operation by the Iraqi intelligence and the U.S.-led Coalition as they launched an airstrike in al-Hijin region, east of Syria, on January 20.

"The airstrike is considered the fourth for the Iraqi intelligence in less than six months. The death of Abu Saleh Hifa (Iyad al-Ebeidi), Baghdadi’s deputy, was confirmed after Abu Ali al-Anbari then the death of Abu Yahia al-Iraqi (Iyad al-Jumeili), Baghdadi’s deputy, after Abu Saleh Hifa," Hashimi added.

The third strike, according to Hashimi, "resulted in arresting Abu Zeid al-Iraqi (Ismail Elwan al-Eithawi)."

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Suicide bombers kill Syrian rebel figure in Idlib province

2015-07-15

[EN.ZAMANALWSL.NET] Two jacket wallahs killed a prominent figure from the Islamist Death Eater group Ahrar al Sham when they blew up a local headquarters in Syria's northwestern Idlib province, rebel sources and a monitor said on Monday.

They said Sheikh Abu Abdul Rahman al Salqeeni was killed along with six others, including the bombers who detonated themselves shortly after entering the Death Eater groups' office in a village near the town of Salqeen, along the Turkish border.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which tracks violence across the country, said several others were maimed and at death's door. It said Abu Adul Rahman was a big shot in Ahrar al-Sham
...a Syria jihadi group made up of Islamists and salafists, not that there's that much difference, formed into a brigade. They make up the main element of the Islamic Front but they don't profess adoration of al-Qaeda and they've been fighting (mainly for survival) against the Islamic State. Their leadership was wiped out at a single blow by a suicide kaboom at a crowded basement meeting in September, 2014...
, one of the largest jihadist groups in Syria.

A rebel source with Ahrar al Sham accused the hardline 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 Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
group of carrying out the attack that took place only days after a boom-mobileing in Sarmeen town in Idlib province that was also blamed on the holy warriors and killed a member of the group.

Ahrar al Sham, is part of a rebel coalition that includes non-jihadist groups that have received Western aid that are battling Islamic State in several parts of the country, mainly in the northern Aleppo countryside.

Jihadist groups and mainstream rebel groups have been engaged in internecine fighting that has helped Syrian President Bashar al Assad's army to hold back holy warriors from further gains across the country. (Rooters)

Link

Down Under

Kiwi jihadi fails to earn his OPSEC badge

2015-01-01

A Kiwi jihadist who claimed to be fighting in Syria with the IS has been mistakenly broadcasting his exact location after forgetting to turn off the tracking function on his phone.

Mohammad Daniel, also known as Abu Abdul Rahman, and formerly known as Mark John Taylor, has now deleted dozens of posts from Twitter after discovering that he had been revealing his location to intelligence agencies and enemies keeping tabs on him.

Daniel's posts apparently show that in October this year he was with IS in Kafar Roma. His tweets stopped around the time that the Syrian Army made a strong push into the area. He then went off the grid for several months while fighting in the desert and finally retreating to IS stronghold Al Tabqah in early December.

Daniel sent several tweets from Al Tabqah which allowed Canada-based open source intelligence research group iBRABO to pinpoint a specific house in the southwest of the city that he had "predominantly used" from December 3-10.

A recent photo update - which shows the face of another IS fighter - showed Daniel to be on the move again. Weyers said, "No doubt this is a better alternative than being targeted by a drone strike or any group with the operational capabilities to target his short lived home in Al Tabqah."

Daniels' tweets will further hamper future plans of a return home. While in Aleppo in September, he claimed to have been in touch with the New Zealand's government in a bid to get a new passport after burning his last one.

Daniels was friends with another New Zealand extremist, Muslim Bin John. He went to see John in Yemen in 2009, which led to him being recommended for travel restrictions. John, suspected of ties to al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, was killed in a drone strike last year.

In 2009, Daniel was arrested in Pakistan while trying to gain access to an al-Qaeda and Taliban stronghold near the Afghanistan border and was subsequently subjected to travel restrictions.

He left New Zealand again in May 2012 and worked as an English teacher in Indonesia for two years. In June of this year, he entered Syria across the Turkish border "as a soldier for Allah".

Link

Terror Networks

Inside The Hierarchy Of The Islamic State

2014-09-21

[Ynet] Documents extracted from home of IS military leader in Iraq show organization leader al-Baghdadi has two deputies to help run Iraq and Syria territories respectively, as well as a 7-man cabinet and governors running the different regions.

Documents seized in an Iraqi military raid of the home of an Islamic State leader reveal the governing structures of the new self-declared caliphate for the first time, according to new data by the Terrorism Research and Analysis Consortium (TRAC).

The information, extracted from memory sticks taken from the home of ISIS military chief of staff in Iraq, Abu Abdul Rahman al-Bilawi, who was killed in the military raid, shows how the jihadist group has gone from being a strictly military force to an organization that can provide state bureaucratic services like gas, food and legislation to the 4 million people in its conquered territories.

Link

Iraq

Islamic State Claims Wave of Baghdad Bombings

2014-07-21

[VOA News] The Islamic State group has grabbed credit for a wave of boom-mobiles in mostly Shi'ite areas of Baghdad which killed at least 27 people on Saturday.

The hardline Sunni Islamist organization which has led an offensive across northern and western Iraq said two of the kabooms were suicide missions by bombers it named as Abum al-Qaaqaa al-Almaani and Abu Abdul Rahman al-Shami - noms de guerre which suggested they were from Germany and Syria.

Saturday's blasts were the deadliest in the Iraqi capital since the Sunni insurgency erupted in the northern city of djinn-infested Mosul
... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn...
and then swept through Sunni regions of Iraq towards Baghdad.

The first suicide kaboom took place at a checkpoint where soldiers, police and Shi'ite volunteer fighters were gathered, the Islamic State said in an Internet statement. The other struck in Kadhimiya, the site of a major Shi'ite shrine.

At the same time two boom-mobiles were set off in the west of the capital. "The toll of these blessed operations was the killing and wounding of 150 people," the statement said, warning of greater attacks to come.

Link

Terror Networks

Revealed: the Islamic State 'cabinet', from finance minister to suicide bomb deployer

2014-07-10

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, one of the world's most wanted jihadists, is aided by a "cabinet" of deputies, who manage both the Islamic State's military operations and its new, self declared, caliphate. Documents seized from the house of a member of the Islamic State in a raid by the Iraqi military have revealed, for the first time and in remarkable detail, the leadership structure of this secretive organization.

...and a more in-depth look, from the same source:
The information, which was found on memory sticks taken from the home of Abu Abdul Rahman al-Bilawi, al-Baghdadi's military chief of staff for Iraqi territory, who was killed in the military raid, identified two key deputies who are charged with managing terrain controlled by the Islamic State in Syria and in Iraq respectively.

Unlike His Supreme Immensity, Caliph of the Faithful and Galactic Overlord, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi
...formerly merely the head of ISIL and a veteran of the Bagram jailhouse. Looks like a new messiah to bajillions of Moslems, like just another dead-eyed mass murder to the rest of us...
both of these men formerly held senior roles in the Iraqi military and are seasoned in battle.

Abu Ali al-Anbari, who is charged with managing operations in the parts of Syria controlled by the Islamic State, was a major general in the Iraqi military under ousted dictator Saddam Hussein, Mr Hashimi said. He's said to hail from the northern Iraqi province of djinn-infested Mosul
... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn....

Abu Muslim al-Turkmani was a lieutenant colonel in the Iraqi military's intelligence core and also spent time as a special forces officer.

"These men the reasons behind the strength of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. They are the key people who keep him in power," said Mr Hashimi.

The documents reveal the meticulous lengths that the jihadist group has gone to to transform itself into an organization that is capable of ruling its own state.

Al-Anbari and al-Turkmani have a clear hierarchy of men beneath them who make up the "governors" of the "local provinces" of the jihadist's new country.

Earlier this month, during the first days of the holy Moslem month of Ramadan, al-Baghdadi made a shock announcement, declaring the swathe of land controlled by the Islamic State no longer terrain in Iraq and Syria, but part of a new Islamic caliphate.

The territory includes Mosul in northern Iraq, the country's second most populous city.

Link

Iraq

Al-Qaeda force captures Fallujah

2014-01-04

BEIRUT -- A rejuvenated al-Qaeda force asserted control over the western Iraqi town of Fallujah on Friday, raising its flag over government buildings and declaring an Islamic state in one of the most crucial areas that U.S. troops fought to pacify before withdrawing from Iraq two years ago.

Miss us yet?

The capture of Fallujah came amid an explosion of violence across the western desert province of Anbar in which local tribes, the Iraqi security forces and al-Qaeda militants have been fighting one another for days in a confusingly chaotic three- way war.

Elsewhere in the province, local tribal militias claimed they were gaining ground against the al-Qaeda militants who surged into urban areas from their desert strongholds earlier this week after clashes erupted between local residents and the Iraqi security forces.

But in Fallujah, where Marines fought the bloodiest battle of the Iraq war in 2004, the militants appeared to have the upper hand, underscoring the extent to which the Iraqi security forces have struggled to sustain the gains made by U.S. troops before they withdrew in December 2011.

The upheaval also affirmed the soaring capabilities of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), the rebranded version of the al-Qaeda in Iraq organization that formed a decade ago to confront U.S. troops and expanded into Syria last year while also escalating its activities in Iraq.

"At the moment, there is no presence of the Iraqi state in Fallujah," said a local journalist who asked not to be named because he fears for his safety. "The police and the army have abandoned the city, al-Qaeda has taken down all the Iraqi flags and burned them, and it has raised its own flag on all the buildings."

At Friday prayers, held outdoors and attended by thousands of people, a masked ISIS fighter took the podium and addressed the crowd, declaring the establishment of an "Islamic emirate" in Fallujah and promising to help residents fight the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and his Iranian allies.

"We don't want to hurt you. We don't want to take any of your possessions," the masked man told the crowd, according to the journalist, who attended the prayers. "We want you to reopen the schools and institutions and return to your normal lives."

"You just have to do as we say and do everything the way we tell you do it, or we'll kill you. But otherwise return to your normal lives."

The extent of the militants' control over the town was unclear, however. Some local tribes were challenging their presence, and there were scattered firefights in several parts of the town, according to another Fallujah resident who also did not want to be named because he is afraid. The Iraqi army fired shells into Fallujah from bases outside the town, killing at least 17 people, and most residents spent the day hiding indoors, he said.

In the provincial capital Ramadi, tribal fighters have succeeded in ejecting al-Qaeda loyalists, according to Ahmed Abu Risha, a tribal leader who fought alongside U.S. troops against al-Qaeda following the "surge" of U.S. troops in 2007.

The tribesmen are fighting alongside Iraqi police, Abu Risha said, and among those killed in the fighting was Abu Abdul Rahman al-Baghdadi, the emir, or leader, of ISIS in Ramadi.

"All the tribes of Anbar are fighting against al-Qaeda," he said. "We are happy this fight is taking place. We will confront them face to face, and we will win this battle."

But it was unclear whether all of the tribal fighters battling the al-Qaeda militants were doing so in alliance with the Iraqi government. The current violence evolved from a year-long, largely peaceful Sunni revolt against Maliki's Shiite-dominated government. The revolt was inspired by the Arab Spring demonstrations elsewhere in the region but rooted in the sectarian disputes left unresolved when U.S. troops withdrew.

When Maliki dispatched the Iraqi army to quell one of the protests in Ramadi earlier this week, the local tribes fought back. Maliki ordered the troops to withdraw, creating an opportunity for al-Qaeda fighters to surge into the towns from their desert strongholds and triggering battles across the province.

Though some tribes have now turned against al-Qaeda, others have not, said Kirk Sowell, a political risk analyst based in the Jordanian capital, Amman, who edits the newsletter Inside Iraqi Politics.

"Basically no one is in control," he said. "The situation was really horrible anyway, and the operation against Ramadi made it worse."

Link

Arabia

Ex-Fighter in Iraq Tells His Story

2007-11-24

A young Saudi, who was brainwashed to fight in Iraq where he narrowly escaped death and suffered scarring to his face and hands in a failed suicide attack, recently called on young Saudis not to follow in his footsteps and be wary of militant groups in Iraq. Ahmad Abdullah Al-Shaie, a young Saudi from Buraidah who describes himself as a victim, told Al-Riyadh newspaper that he was brainwashed into going to and fighting in Iraq. The Iraqis who were supposed to train me and prepare me to fight the occupation tried to kill me by making me an unwilling suicide bomber, said Al-Shaie, who was tricked into driving a truck full of explosives.

In 2005, Al-Shaie went to Iraq to fight American troops. The leader of his group, Abu Abdul Rahman, asked him to drive a gas tank to a place in the Al-Mansour district of Baghdad. The Saudi youngster said he was suspicious why he had been chosen. He had no experience, did not know his way around, and felt an Iraqi would have been better suited.

The young Saudi had arrived in Iraq to undergo military training to take part in the insurgency. We thought the Iraqis were on our side. I never doubted them, as I used to see them fasting and praying. I thought they were doing jihad and it never crossed my mind that they may want to kill me, said Al-Shaie.

On the day he was to deliver the truck, Al-Shaie was shown how to maneuver it. Iraqi fighters guided him through Baghdad and when they reached a certain point they (the Iraqis) sped off in a waiting car. Al-Shaie recalls the moment when he was left alone. I continued driving. After around 500 meters, the truck exploded. It was a nightmare. I couldnt believe what had happened. Twelve people died and many were injured, said Al-Shaie, adding that later he learned that his truck, which was carrying 26 tons of liquid explosives, was aimed at bombing the Jordanian Embassy.

Al-Shaie arrived in Iraq in 2005 after meeting an old friend, who told him about jihad and stories of fighters in Afghanistan and Chechnya. The friend showed him a fatwa permitting Saudis to go to Iraq to fight without the approval of their parents and the ruler of the country. In the last 10 days of Ramadan in 2005, Al-Shaie told his parents he was going camping. I knew that if I told them about my real intentions they would have objected. We went to Syria where we met a Saudi called Abu Abdullah, he said, adding that all of the people he met used nicknames and never their real names.

In Syria, he was introduced to a Syrian man called Mazin, who arranged for his passage into Iraq. When we entered Iraq, we met two young Iraqis carrying two Yemenis, who were wounded in Falluja. The Iraqis told us to move on before sunrise, otherwise the Americans would come after us, said Al-Shaie.

In Iraq, Al-Shaie and his group met the leader of foreign Arab fighters. His name was Abu Aseel and asked us if we wanted to be martyrs. None of us raised our hands because we had all come to fight and not to kill ourselves, said Al-Shaie. The group was told of the rewards given to martyrs in Islam. However, the group remained unconvinced.

Their passports were taken from them and they were handed $100 each and sent to the Al-Anbar province where they joined a group of 40 Arab fighters. After one week, we went to Ramadi where we were supposed to be getting training... We complained to the leader of the camp that we werent getting any training. He just said we would be taken to Baghdad the next day, said Al-Shaie, adding that an explosives expert called Abu Omar Al-Kurdi received the group in Baghdad.

It was in Baghdad under Al-Kurdi that Al-Shaie was tricked into driving the truck on that fatal morning. After the truck he was driving exploded, the young Saudi, having sustained burns, was taken to the Abu Ghraib Prison Hospital. After one month, US officials handed Al-Shaie and a group of other young Saudis into the custody of the Saudi government. Al-Shaie says he does not know the fate of his friend, who brought him to Iraq. He believes he may have died fighting.

The conditions in Iraq are very difficult... We were brainwashed and were used by these people, he said. Most Saudis in Iraq have gone because of fatwas permitting them to fight. However, we all know that the Kingdoms Higher Scholar Committee has not approved these decrees. Many young Saudis that went to Iraq have been influenced by what they see on websites and hear in cassettes, he said. The Iraqis are not happy with foreigners fighting in Iraq. They think were interfering in their internal business, he said. I advise young Saudis not to go to Iraq.

Link

Iraq

Some Fighters in Iraq Adopt New Tactics to Battle U.S.

2006-11-24

So they're "fighters" now. Not even militants or insurgents. NYT.
FORWARD OPERATING BASE CALDWELL, Iraq Sunni Arab militant groups suspected of having ties to Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia have established training camps east of Baghdad that are turning out well-disciplined units willing to fight American forces in set-piece battles, American military commanders said Thursday.

American soldiers fought such units in a pitched battle last week in Turki, a village 25 miles south of this Iraqi Army base in volatile Diyala Province, bordering Iran. At least 72 insurgents and two American officers were killed in more than 40 hours of fighting. American commanders said they called in 12 hours of airstrikes while soldiers shot their way through a reed-strewn network of canals in extremely close combat.

Officers said that in that battle, unlike the vast majority of engagements in Diyala, insurgents stood and fought, even deploying a platoon-size unit that showed remarkable discipline. One captain said the unit was in perfect military formation.

Insurgents throughout Iraq usually avoid direct confrontation with American troops, preferring to use hit-and-run tactics and melting away at the sight of American armored vehicles.

Lt. Col. Andrew Poppas, commander of the Fifth Squadron, 73rd Cavalry, a unit of the 82nd Airborne Division, said in an interview that the fighters at Turki were disciplined and well trained, with well-aimed shots.

We hadnt seen anything like this in years, he said.

The insurgents had built a labyrinthine network of trenches in the farmland, with sleeping areas and weapons caches. Two antiaircraft guns had been hidden away.

Insurgents were apparently able to establish a training camp after American forces moved out of the area in the fall of 2005, Colonel Poppas said. Sunni Arab militants there belong to the fundamentalist Wahhabi strain of Islam and are believed to be led, at least in part, by a man known as Abu Abdul Rahman, an Iraqi-Canadian who moved from Canada to Iraq in 1995 after marrying a woman from Turki, he said.

Abu Abdul Rahman was mentioned on some jihadist Web sites as a possible contender for the leadership of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia after the groups founder, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, was killed in an American airstrike in Diyala Province in June, said Capt. Mike Few, commander of A Troop, Fifth Squadron.

Senior commanders training Iraqi Army units here say other rural areas of eastern and central Diyala where American forces have had little oversight have been transformed into camps similar to the one at Turki. The graduates, many of whom belong to an umbrella group called the Sunni Council, then spread to urban areas like Baquba, the provincial capital, said Maj. Tim Sheridan, an intelligence officer. Sectarian violence is rampant in Diyala, where Sunni and Shiite militants are vying for control.

The battle at Turki began after Colonel Poppas and other soldiers flew over the area on a reconnaissance mission on Nov. 12. From the helicopters, they spotted a white car covered by shrubbery and a hole in the ground that appeared to be a hiding place. The colonel dropped off an eight-man team and later sent other soldiers to sweep the area.

Gunfire erupted on Nov. 15 when one unit ran into an ambush. The fighting eventually became so intense that the Americans called in airstrikes. An American captain and a lieutenant, both West Point graduates, were killed by insurgents in separate firefights.

Link

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