headland

A FreeRepublic thread provides several links to a story that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has been arrested in Iraq. Here are the links:

• ITAR:TASS--Abu Musab al-Zarqawi reportedly arrested in Iraq
• Kazinform--Abu Musab al-Zarqawi reportedly arrested in Iraq.

UPDATE:

• Zarqawi Capture Reports Untrue

Also this, from the BBC World Monitoring International Reports:

Text of report by Iraqi Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) web site on 4 January

A high-ranking official source at the US embassy has denied the news of the arrest of Abu-Mus'ab al-Zarqawi by Iraqi forces in cooperation with the multinational forces.

It is worth noting that earlier Arab and foreign news agencies reported the arrest of the terrorist Abu-Mus'ab al-Zarqawi in the town of Ba'qubah.

Source: Kurdistan Newsline web site, Washington (USA), in Arabic 4 Jan 05

Labels: Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Iraq, Kurdistan

Was the brother of the former director of Al-Jazeera's Baghdad bureau a guard for Saddam Hussein and the foremost aide of Abu-Mus'ab al-Zarqawi? The rift between the Qatari-funded satellite channel Al-Jazeera and the Saudi-owned London-based newspaper Al-Sharq al-Awsat over that allegation may reflect deeper fault lines between the two Gulf states.

On November 19, Al-Sharq al-Awsat published a report from Baghdad with the lengthy title: "Al-Zarqawi's aide a former guard of Saddam, brother of 'Al-Jazeera' office's director in Baghdad. Umar Hadid led Al-Fallujah battle, received training in Afghanistan." A translated paraphrase of the article was made by BBC Monitoring International Reports (not, so far as I know, publicly accessible on the web), though a rough translation of a portion of the article is available on FrontPage Magazine.

Al-Sharq al-Awsat quoted informed sources in Iraq as saying that Hamid Hadid, the director of Al-Jazeera's Baghdad bureau had a brother who had been Abu-Mus'ab al-Zarqawi's foremost aide. This brother, Umar Hadid, was also said to have once been in the special guard of Saddam Hussein. (The translation on FrontPage says he was in Saddam Hussein's "personal body-guards unit"; the BBC Monitoring International Report says Umar was in "Saddam's Special Republican Guard.") About ten years ago, according to the report, Umar left the guard service to associate with radical Islamic fundamentalist groups. With one accomplice, he is alleged to have carried out a bombing of an al-Fallujah cinema that killed a person. He then is thought to have fled to Pakistan, and, from there, to have entered Afghanistan, where he received training in the base camps of al-Qa'idah, under the leadership of Osama bin Laden.

Sources for the report thought that Umar Hadid may have left Afghanistan to return to Pakistan, after the overthrow of the Taleban regime in 2001. There is no doubt among the sources, however, that he returned to Iraq just before the beginning of the war, when Saddam Hussein provided a general amnesty for prisoners, wanted men and runaways.

According to intelligence sources, Umar Hadid led the battle against U.S. forces in al-Fallujah. Iraqi sources privy to information from western intelligence services also claimed that Umar Hadid was still in the al-Fallujah region after al-Zarqawi escaped.

The report of Al-Sharq al-Awsat also alleged that the Hadids had a third brother, who was killed, along with his family, when his house was shelled by U.S. forces just two hours after a visit from Umar.

Al Jazeera responded promptly, on November 20, with an interview of Umar Hadid in their Doha studio. Here are his denials, in a translation provided by BBC Worldwide Monitoring, November 20 (again, so far as I know, not available in any publicly accessible website):

Hadid: I am Umar Ahmad Muhammad al-Jumayli, a brother of Hamid Ahmad Muhammad al-Jumayli, director of Al-Jazeera bureau. The Saudi newspaper Al-Sharq al-Awsat published a report claiming that I have a connection with or that I am an aide to Al-Zarqawi in Al-Fallujah. I deny this because I am 24 years old. The report claims that I was in Afghanistan 10 years ago and went to Pakistan. Ten years ago, I was a little boy. Therefore, this is untrue.

Lina Zahr-al-Din, Al-Jazeera: You do not know Al-Zarqawi at all and you have not met him before?

Hadid: I do not know Al-Zarqawi or anybody linked to him. I hear about him from satellite channels only.

Zahr-al-Din: You said that 10 years ago you were a young boy, but the newspaper accused you that then you worked in Saddam Husayn's special guard. What did you exactly do then?

Hadid: I was a student. I was 14 years old. I left school then and began to drive a lorry to support my family. Afterward, I was enrolled in the Iraqi Army for three months. This is the military service document and the driving licence, which prove that I served in the Iraqi Army for three months. I was discharged later after paying cash for my discharge.

On November 23, Al-Sharq al-Awsat responded with a published interview of Iraqi interim Defense Minister Hazim Sha'lan. Al-Sha'lan attacked Al-Jazeera satellite television as a "terrorist channel. He also claimed that Umar Hadid was indeed "a terrorist and is wanted by the Iraqi government for his terrorist activities in Fallujah." (quotation from "Analysis: Al-Jazeera's Row with Saudi Paper Al-Sharq Al-Awsat," BBC Monitoring International Reports, November 26, 2004).

On the same day, the new editor of Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, Tariq al-Humayd, appeared on the Lebanese channel Future TV to defend his paper's feature story on Umar Hadid. Appointed by Prince Faysal bin Salman in October 2004, al-Humayd has given the London-based newspaper an editorial stance that is firmly in support of the war on terror. (In one piece, entitled "For Saudis only," for example, he took to task those Saudis who sympathized with the jihadists in Afghanistan, Iraq, and particularly, those fighting in Fallujah. He also called for Islamic clerics to stop inciting the youth of Saudi Arabia to jihad.) By the account of the interview in the BBC Monitoring International Report, it appears that al-Humayd took a moderately conciliatory stance toward al-Jazeera, and emphasized that the story's focus had been Umar Hamid, not al-Jazeera. Al-Humayd also expressed concern that the incident should not become "politicized" and lead to a rift between Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

Whatever the resolution of this dispute over the Hadids, the fast-approaching trial of Saddam Hussein promises to teach us much, much more about the nexus connecting Saddam's regime to global networks of terror.

Labels: Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, al Qaeda, Al-Jazeera, Al-Qa'idah, Al-Qaeda, Al-Qaida, Hamid Hadid, Iraq, Osama bin Laden, Saddam Hussein

The announcement by Abu-Mu'ab al-Zarqawi, the leader of the Al-Tawhid wa al-Jihad Group in Iraq, that pledged allegiance to the Al-Qaida Organization of Osama Bin-Ladin has generated a variety of interpretations.

"Linking Al-Zarqawi to Al-Qa'idah adds some legitimacy to Bush's claims about Saddam's cooperation with Al-Qa'idah and subsequently adds legitimacy to his occupation of Iraq." Husayn Bin-Mahmud

Louis Meixler of the Associated Press published an analysis on Tuesday suggesting that the pledge may be a sign of weakness rather than strength. The article quotes Daniel Byman, a senior fellow at the Saban Center at the Brookings Institute, who argues that the pledge may show that Al-Zarqawi, while politically strong among Islamic militants, may be desperately in need of money and people after the pounding he is taking from the U.S. military.

In the statement appearing on an Islamic Web site last weekend, al-Zarqawi said he regarded bin Laden as "the best leader for Islam's armies against all infidels and apostates" and pledged "allegiance of Tawhid and Jihad's leadership and soldiers to the chief of all fighters, Osama bin Laden."

Predictably, during this election season, the AP concluded with someone skeptical of the timing of the announcement:

"If al-Zarqawi were the manager of the Bush campaign, this would be the right statement at the right time," said Diaa Rashwan, a terrorism analyst at Cairo's al-Ahram Center. "It's timing ... only serves the interests of the Bush election campaign."

The BBC Monitoring International Reports published several reactions to Al-Zarqawi's announcements that were originally published in the London-based newspaper Al-Quds al-Arabi on October 19 as "Al-Zarqawi's pledge of allegiance to Bin Ladin draws extremely contrasting interpretations." Here are three selections from the sources quoted in that report:

• Yasir al-Sirri, director of the London-based Islamic Observation Centre, says that the pledge of allegiance shows that "the US allegations about a relationship between Al-Qa'idah and Saddam Husayn through Al-Zarqawi are incorrect."
• Abd-al-Bari Atwan, chief editor of the London-based Al-Quds Al-Arabi, says: "This pledge of allegiance eliminates with certainty any doubt about Al-Zarqawi's connection to Bin-Ladin. Al-Zarqawi has come under the wing of Al-Qa'idah. Al-Zarqawi is a graduate of Bin-Ladin's school. He received training in Afghanistan and went to Iraq where he established a branch for the organization. Today, the branch rejoins the mother organization. The Al-Qa'idah Organization is a horizontal and not vertical organization and Bin-Ladin is the spiritual father."
• Husayn Bin-Mahmud, an expert in the Islamic World Information Centre, wrote an analysis recently published on Islamic Internet sites. He says: "Al-Zarqawi is a mysterious personality. He is the ideal person for attracting the attention of the American public. He also justifies the viewpoint that Bush gives to his people that this war was not launched only against Iraq, but also against international terrorism." Mahmud says that Al-Zarqawi is also Bush's "justification for staying in Iraq." He says: "Linking Al-Zarqawi to Al-Qa'idah adds some legitimacy to Bush's claims about Saddam's cooperation with Al-Qa'idah and subsequently adds legitimacy to his occupation of Iraq."

UPDATE: The Associated Press reports that Al-Tawhid wa al-Jihad has changed its name to "al-Qaida of Jihad in the Land of Two Rivers" [the Euphrates and the Tigris].

Labels: Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, al Qaeda, Al-Qa'idah, Al-Qaeda, Al-Qaida, Al-Tawhid wa al-Jihad Group, Iraq, Osama bin Laden

Jason Fuchs reports in Tuesday's Defense & Foreign Affairs Daily ¹ that "spectacular" attacks against targets in the West and particularly the United States, prior to the U.S. elections on November 2, are the subject of "intense strategic discussions" involving Islamist-jihadist groups along with their chief state sponsors, Iran and Syria. Global Information System (GIS) sources report that, on the question of a major Islamist offensive, "[Government officials in] Damascus and Tehran, and Islamist leaders in Islamabad are engaged in the debate and having "major input."

"Damascus and Tehran, and [Islamist leaders in] Islamabad are in on the debate and are having major input."

Though the debate is formulated in theological language, the GIS sources describe it as "extremely pragmatic." The utilitarian calculation involves an estimation of the probable reaction of the US electorate to pre-election attacks, described as a new mass-casualty "spectacular," and the danger of retaliation directed toward the sponsoring states. There is also some discussion of how the Muslim world will respond to the extreme violence and bloodshed being proposed.

Sources have stressed that the sponsoring states have the power to prevent the attacks on their own, "in more than one way," should they choose to do so.

This is not the first report of plans for a major attack against the West. A leaked Iraqi intelligence report, published in the Iraqi daily al-Watan on September 22, 2004 (and discussed by headland on September 24 in Al-Zarqawi planning major attack in Europe or US." ²), alleged that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was preparing cells for a big attack, "along the lines of 11 September," in Western Europe or the United States.

GIS sources characterized these reports as somewhat misleading, inasmuch as Zarqawi has no direct control over significant assets in Western Europe. Nonetheless, some of the non-Iraqi Islamist fighters who have fought in Iraq under Zarqawi's command and in association with his Jamaat al-Tawhid wa'l-Jihad (Unity and Jihad Group) have returned to Islamist units in their home countries. These operatives are under commanders in Western Europe and await the directions of the high strategic operational command led by Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri and his associated state sponsors.

TO BE CONTINUED.

NOTES
¹ Jason Fuchs (Global Information System UN Correspondent), "Intense Debate by Islamist movements and Sponsoring States on New Terrorist Attacks on the West," Defense & Foreign Affairs Daily, October 12, 2004.
² The headland report, Al-Zarqawi planning major attack in Europe or US.", was based on a BBC Worldwide Monitoring translation of the al-Watan report, published on www.al-watan.com in Arabic.

Labels: Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Ayman al-Zawahri, Defense and Foreign Affairs Daily, Global Information System, Iran, Iraq, Jamaat al-Tawhid wa'l-Jihad, Jason Fuchs, Syria

BBC Monitoring has translated a report of the interrogation of Umar Bizani, a recently captured member of Abu-Mus'ab al-Zarqawi's Al-Tawhid wa al-Jihad. The source of the report, published in Arabic on October 5, is the website of the Lebanese newspaper Al-Mustaqbal of Beirut.

Here are the highlights:

• Umar Bizani, the "emir of Baghdad" in Abu-Mus'ab al-Zarqawi's Al-Tawhid wa al-Jihad group, was captured in the past few weeks and made important confessions.
• Iran supports the activities of the Jordanian extremist al-Zarqawi in Iraq
• Al-Zarqawi has been a frequent visitor to Iran for years.
• During the offensive that the US forces launched on Al-Fallujah in April, Al-Zarqawi moved to Iran.
• Bizani was one of 10 key leaders (emirs) helping Al-Zarqawi to run the Al-Tawhid wa al-Jihad group, whose members total over 2500.
• Al-Zarqawi's escorts who secure his travels number between 15 and 25, but do not include any Iraqi nationals. Iraqi nationals do, however, constitute the "backbone" of the group itself.
• Al-Zarqawi's group does not belong to Al-Qa'idah, but there exist links between the two groups and occasional cooperation between them in Iraq.
• Bizani claimed that Al-Zarqawi had been in Afghanistan and Kabul and had met often with Usamah Bin-Ladin, but had never been a member of Al-Qa'idah. Al-Zarqawi does, however, believes in the ideology of Al-Qa'idah and has admiration for Bin-Ladin.
• Al-Zarqawi now believes that Al-Tawhid wa al-Jihad can replace Al-Qa'idah since it has weakened and no longer has a clear existence in the jihad area.
• The closest group to Al-Tawhid wa al-Jihad is the Ansar Al-Islam group, though there have been rifts, resulting in some members of Ansar Al-Islam moving to Al-Tawhid wa al-Jihad.
• Most members of the Al-Zarqawi group are Islamists, despite some efforts to coopt Saddam's Ba'thist loyalists into the group.
• Ansar Al-Islam has served as a connecting link between Al-Zarqawi and some Iranian parties.
• Al-Zarqawi visited Iran in September 2001 to meet with members of Ansar Al-Islam members who were active in Europe.
• Al-Zarqawi has established ties with Iranian agencies, particularly with Qasim Soleymani, the commander of the al-Quds Corps in the Revolution Guards that are operating in Iraq.
• While in Iran last April, Al-Zarqawi spent several weeks in a Revolution Guards camp in the Mahran area on the border with Iraq. He then returned to Ba'qubah in Iraq with the assistance of Al-Quds Corps.
• With the assistance of the Iraqi organization Ansar Al-Sunna and the Islamic Army in Iraq, Al-Zarqawi succeeded in establishing links with some of the leadership of Al-Mahdi Army, led by Iraqi Shi'i cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, during the fighting in Al-Najaf in May and July.

Labels: Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Afghanistan, al Qaeda, Al-Mahdi Army, Al-Qa'idah, Al-Qaeda, Al-Qaida, al-Quds Corps, Al-Tawhid wa al-Jihad Group, Ansar Al-Islam, Iran, Iraq, Qasim Soleymani

Eight months ago, Mawlavi Ghafar was released from the U.S. base in Guantanamo Base. Ghafar had been held since his arrest in Afghanistan, just two months after a U.S.-led coalition drove the Taliban from power in late 2001. Freed from Guantanamo, Ghafar promptly returned to Afghanistan, where he resumed the fight against the U.S. and its allies. Ghafar became the Taliban's senior commander for the southern province of Uruzgan and neighboring Helmand provinces. Nevertheless, do not look for Ghafar to become the Willie Horton of the 2004 presidential campaign, despite the fact that both Horton and Ghafar are conspicuous recidivists.

[Historical footnote: Willie Horton, a convicted murderer in Massachusetts, was released on furlough in 1986, fled to Maryland, took a suburban couple hostage, tortured the man and raped his wife. The Massachusetts Legislature responded to the growing outrage by voting to end the furlough program for convicted murders. Governor Michael Dukakis reluctantly reversed his defense of the program, and quietly signed the repeal before resuming his presidential campaign. The issue of whether Dukakis was "soft on crime" was raised in the primary campaign by an opponent, the then Senator Al Gore, and again, in the 1988 general election campaign by President George H. W. Bush.]

Ghafar's story ended abruptly when he was killed in an ambush on Saturday by Afghan security forces in Uruzgan. General David Barno, somewhat defensively allowed that the screening process at the U.S. detention facility was not "flawless." "Inevitably there is going to be a few that may slip through that and come back here to play a role," he said. Yet, the interview ended with an intriguing follow-up thought from General Borno, paraphrased by the Reuters reporter: "He [Borno] added that U.S. intelligence in Afghanistan kept track of Guantanamo Bay returnees." Tracked and then killed, Ghafar was indeed no Willie Horton.

Was Ghafar more like Rusty Millio? In last season's HBO series The Sopranos, Frankie Valli played a Mob captain Rusty Millio, one of a group of just-released prison felons known as the Class of 2004. The Sopranos portrays the integration of a mobster back into the gang's heirarchy as a difficult transition for all involved. Giving the returning criminal a position that fits his seniority causes resentment among the young turks who are pushed aside to make room. Doing any less risks angering the old-timers and sends the message that loyalty is not a two-way street. Alas, Millio doesn't handle the transition well and is unable to be properly deferential to those who are junior in age but senior in rank. The episode ends with Millio on a bus back to prison, after his parole officer is tipped to the contraband in his garage.

No, I don't suspect that Ghafar was similarly betrayed by his own. Yet, if a criminal, just released from prison, has a hard time reintegrating back into a crime family, how hard must it now be for terrorists to return to the fold? Recall that just last year, the notorious Fathur Rohman al-Ghozi of Jemaah Islamiyah made a "getaway" from a Manila jail only soon to be killed in a "shootout."

Repatriation of a terrorist back into the network seemed to be much easier before 9-11. Released from a 15 year sentence of hard labor in a Jordanian jail in 1999, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi returned to Afghanistan where, with the permission of Osama bin Laden, he set up a training camp in Herat.

Now, Zarqawi is said to be in Fallujah, where U.S. airstrikes this last Saturday night killed many of his followers in Tawhid wal Jihad. One of those killed was Ahmed Tabouki, a Saudi said to be Zarqawi's right-hand man. ("Associate of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi killed in U.S. airstrikes in Fallujah," Steve Fainaru, Washington Post, September 27, 2004).

The precise targeting of the terrorists can only increase mistrust within the group. Reuters reports:

Another U.S. official said the U.S. military had intelligence of "infighting and executions" inside Zarqawi's group, Tawhid and Jihad, which means Monotheism and Holy War. (U.S. Says Over 100 Zarqawi Loyalists Killed in Iraq)

A revealing biography of Al-Zarqawi in Sunday's (London) Telegraph ("Profile: Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi," Con Coughlin , September 26, 2004) begins with an account of how he believes he was called to Jihad:

It came to him in a dream. One night in 1992, as the 26-year-old Abu Musab al-Zarqawi slept in his shabby, two-storey house in Jordan, he dreamt that a glistening sword had fallen from heaven and come to rest, somewhat conveniently, in his outstretched hand.

On one side of the sword was inscribed the word Jihad, Holy War. On the other side was his name, Abu Musab, and a verse from the Koran: "Thy Lord has not forsaken thee. Do not despair or mourn. You will be victorious if you truly believe."

The deaths this past Saturday of Ghafar and Tabouki, and on Sunday of Farooqi have made it much harder for Al-Zarqawi to believe, much less to dream.

Labels: Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Afghanistan, Fallujah, Guantanamo Base, Iraq, jihadists, Mawlavi Ghafar

Al-Zawra, the Iraqi Journalists Union newspaper, published "Who Kills Hostages in Iraq?" by Samir Addad and Mazin Ghazi on 19 September. A text in English has been released by BBC Monitoring International Reports. The article reports on the armed groups that are involved in violent resistance in Iraq, dividing the resistance into three categories:

• the Sunni resistance groups
• the Shi'i resistance groups
• Factions abducting and killing.

Below is an outline of the groups in these three categories:

1. The main Sunni resistance groups
1. The Iraqi National Islamic Resistance, "The 1920 Revolution Brigades"
• TARGETS: U.S. forces
• ORIGIN: emerged on 16 July 2003
• GOAL: Expulsion of U.S. and establishment of an independent Iraqi Islamic state
• ACTIVE REGIONS: West of Baghdad, in regions of Abu-Ghurayb, Khan Dari, and Al-Fallujah. Also has activities in the governorates of Ninawa, Diyala, and Al-Anbar.
• STATEMENTS: Distributes statements at gates of the mosques after Friday prayers. A statement issued by group on 19 August 2004 claimed that between 27 July and 7 August 2004 the group carried out an average of ten operations each day, resulting in the deaths of "dozens" of U.S. soldiers and the destruction of U.S. armored vehicles.
• ACTIVITIES:
1. The shooting down of a helicopter in the Abu-Ghurayb region by the Al-Zubayr Bin-Al-Awwam Brigade on 1 August 2004
2. the shooting down of a Chinook helicopter in the Al-Nu'aymiyah region, near Al-Fallujah, by the Martyr Nur-al-Din Brigade on 9 August 2004
2. The National Front for the Liberation of Iraq
• ORIGIN: Formed days after the occupation in April 2003.
• ORGANIZATION: 10 resistance groups.
• COMPOSITION: Nationalists and Islamists.
• REGION OF ACTIVITY: Concentrated in Arbil and Kirkuk in northern Iraq; in Al-Fallujah, Samarra and Tikrit in central Iraq, and in Basra and Babil Governorates in the south, in addition to Diyala Governorate in the east.
• ACTIVITIES: Less extensive than 1920 Revolution Brigades.
3. The Iraqi Resistance Islamic Front, JAMI
• ORIGIN: The newest Sunni resistance group announced its existence on 30 May 2004.
• ORGANIZATION: Includes a coalition of small resistance factions. JAMI's military wing, the Salah-al-Dinand Sayf-Allahal-Maslul Brigades, has carried out dozens of operations against the U.S. forces.
• REGION OF ACTIVITY: Governorates of Ninawa and Diyala.
• ACTIVITIES: In Ninawa Governorate: the shelling of the occupation command headquarters and the semi-daily shelling of the Mosul airport. Jami targets members of the U.S. intelligence in the Al-Faysaliyah area in Mosul and in the governorate of Diyala. In Diyala, the front's Al-Rantisi Brigade sniped a U.S. soldier and used mortars to shell Al-Faris Airport.
4. Other small factions
1. Hamzah Faction: Emerged on 10 October 2003 in Al-Fallujah. Called for release of Shaykh Jamal Nidal, who had been arrested by U.S. forces.
2. Iraqi Liberation Army: First appeared on 15 July, 2003. It warned foreign countries against sending troops to Iraq and pledged to attack any troops that were sent.
3. Awakening and Holy War: Arab Sunni mujahidin. Active in Al-Fallujah. Filmed an operation and sent tape to Iranian television on 7 July 2003. Claimed on tape that Saddam and U.S. were two sides of same coin. Claims to have carried out operations against U.S. forces in Al-Fallujah and other cities.
4. The White Flags: A group of Arab Sunni mujahidin, active in Sunni triangle and probably in other areas. Originally opposed to Saddam Hussein and in alliance with the Muslim Youths and Muhammad's Army. The group criticized the bombing of the Jordanian Embassy in Baghdad. No information is available about their operations.
5. Al-Haqq Army: Consists of Arab Sunni Muslims having some nationalistic tendencies but not loyal to Saddam.
5. Ba'thist factions
• CHARACTER: Loyal to previous regime of Saddam Hussein. Do not represent a significant proportion of resistance.
• ACTIVITIES: Mostly restricted to financing resistance operations.
• COMPOSITION: The factions still existing secretly in the Iraqi arena include:
1. Al-Awdah (The Return): Concentrated in northern Iraq: Samarra, Tikrit, Al-Dur and Mosul. It consists of members of the former intelligence apparatus.
2. Saddam's Fedayeen: Formed by Saddam Hussein's regime before the invasion. Many of its members are rumored to have abandoned their loyalty to Saddam and to have joined Islamic and national groups on the side of the 11 September Revolutionary Group and the Serpent's Head Movement.


2. Shi'i resistance against occupation
1. Al-Sadr group: The Al-Mahdi Army
• ORIGIN: The Al-Mahdi Army is considered the only militia experiment to emerge after the occupation. Shi'i leader Muqtada al-Sadr announced the formation of the Al-Mahdi Army in July 2003, but not as a force directed against the occupation.
• COMPOSITION: Within a short period, Al-Sadr gathered between 10,000 and 15,000 well-trained youths, the majority of whom were from the poor of the Al-Sadr City, Al-Shu'lah, and the southern cities.
• ACTIVITIES: after the closure of Al-Sadr's Al-Hawzah newspaper in March 2004,Al-Sadr's assistant Mustafa al-Ya'qubi is arrested, under suspicion of being involved in the killing of Imam Abd-al-Majid al-Khu'i. A writ to arrest Muqtada al-Sadr is issued in April on charges of assassinating Al-Khu'i inside the Al-Haydari mosque in Al-Najaf on 10 April 2003. The arrest warrant placed the Al-Mahdi Army in confrontation with the occupation forces in Baghdad and the southern governorates. The greatest confrontation between this militia and the occupation forces erupted in Al-Najaf in August 2004. The battle lasted for nearly three weeks, and ended with the signing of a cease-fire agreement.
2. Imam Ali Bin-Abi-Talib Jihadi Brigades
• ORIGIN: This Shi'i group appeared for the first time on 12 October 2003.
• TARGETS: The group announced its intention to kill the soldiers of any country sending its troops to support the coalition forces. The group also threatened to transfer the battleground to the territories of coalition countries. The group also threatened to assassinate all the members of the Interim
  Governing Council and any Iraqi cooperating with the coalition forces.
  
• REGION OF PROJECTED ACTIVITIES: The group announced that Al-Najaf and Karbala were the battlegrounds in which it would target the US forces.


3. Factions which adopt terrorist methods of abductions and killing -- Armed groups that resort to operations of abducting and killing noncombatant foreigners, as a method to terrorize the enemy and apply pressure to achieve specific political ends. This method of terror was successful in pressuring Philippine President Gloria Macapagol-Arroyo to withdraw the Philippine forces from the U.S.-led coalition, after the abduction of her compatriot Angelo del Cruz on 7 July 2004.

   The most prominent of these groups are:

   1. Assadullah Brigades
   • STATEMENT: The brigades said in a statement number 50: "The mujahid is entitled to capture any infidel that enters Iraq, whether he works for a construction company or in any other job, because he could be warrior, and the mujahid has the right to kill him or take him as a prisoner."
   • REGION OF ACTIVITIES: This group is concentrated in Baghdad and its suburbs.
   • NOTABLE ACTIVITIES: This group detained the third most senior diplomat at the Egyptian Embassy to Iraq, Muhammad Mamduh Hilmi Qutb, in July 2004, after the Egyptian Prime Minister Ahmad Nazif announced that Egypt was prepared to offer its security expertise to the interim Iraqi government. The diplomat was released after a week.
   2. Islamic Retaliation Movement:This group abducted the US Marine of Lebanese origin, Wasif Ali Hassun, on 19 July 2004, and then released him.
   3. Islamic Anger Brigades: This group abducted 15 Lebanese in June 2004 and then released all, except for one: Husayn Ulayyan, an employee of a communications company, who was killed.
   4. Khalid-Bin-al-Walid Brigades and Iraq's Martyrs Brigades: This group is believed to have abducted and killed Italian journalist Enzo Bladoni in August 2004.
   5. The Black Flags Group: A battalion of the Secret Islamic Army. This group abducted three Indians, two Kenyans and an Egyptian working for a Kuwaiti company operating in Iraq. The stated aim was to coerce the company to cease its activities in Iraq. The hostages were later released.
   The last four groups are clearly intellectually close to the beliefs and thinking of Al-Qa'idah Organization and its leader, Usamah Bin-Ladin.
   6. The Abu-Mus'ab al-Zarqawi Group: "The first case of slaughter was that of US national Nicholas Berg in May 2004, and the Abu-Mus'ab al-Zarqawi group claimed responsibility for it."
   7. The Al-Tawhid wa al-Jihad Group: the Al-Tawhid wa al-Jihad Group killed South Korean Kim Il, "who was working for a Korean company providing the US Army with military installations." [sic -- Most sources identify Al-Zarqawi's group as one and the same as Al-Tawhid wa Al-jihad]
   8. The Islamic Army in Iraq: "A secret organization that adopts the ideology of Al-Qa'idah. The organization abducted Iranian Consul Feredion Jahani and the two French journalists, Georges Malbrunot and Christian Chesnot."
   9. Ansar al-Sunnah Movement: In August 2004, the Ansar al-Sunna Movement abducted 12 Nepalese and killed them on 23 August 2004.
   The operations of abducting hostages has cascaded in Iraq: some have been slaughtered, and others have been released.

   "The total number of hostages killed so far is: two Italians, two [now three] US nationals, two Pakistanis, one Egyptian, one Turk, one Lebanese, one Bulgarian, one South Korean, and 12 Nepalese."

Labels: Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, al Qaeda, Al-Mahdi Army, Al-Qa'idah, Al-Qaeda, Al-Qaida, hostages, Iraq, Nicholas Berg, Saddam Hussein

BBC Monitoring, translating a report from Al-Sharq al-Awsat, a London-based Arabic newspaper, claims that sources close to the Al-Tawhid wa al-Jihad group of Abu-Mus'ab al-Zarqawi say that the death of Umar Yusuf Jum'ah was a "strong blow" to Al-Zarqawi's group. Yusuf Jum'ah, also known as Abu-Anas al-Shami, was killed in Baghdad on September 17 by an American rocket.

According to the report:

• Abu-Anas al-Shami was born in Amman in 1969.


• His family were Palestinians from the area of Tulkarm, on the West Bank.


• He graduated in 1990 from the Islamic University in Mecca with a specialization in the teaching of Islamic law (Shari'ah).


• According to the head of the Koran and Sunnah Society, Al-Shami resigned from the Society in 2002, just one month after the fall of Saddam Hussein.


• A few months later, al-Shami moved to Iraq.


• Al-Zarqawi was urgently in need of a person, like Al-Shami, broadly versed in Shari'ah.


• Al-Shami took over the position of Shari'ah mufti of the Al-Tawhid wa al-Jihad group, second only to Al-Zarqawi (Ahmad al-Khalayiyah).


• Al-Shami was not one of the nine field commanders, responsible for separate combat areas.


• The sources revealed that Jordanian security agencies did not know of Abu-Anas al-Shami and he was not wanted by the Jordanians.


• Umar Yusuf Jum'ah's name surfaced during the trial of Bilal Mansur Mahmud al-Hiyari.


• The Jordanian State Security Court began the trial of Al-Hiyari at the beginning of September 2004, accusing him of conspiring to carry out terrorist activities and of collecting contributions for Al-Qa'idah.


• The charge sheet said that Umar Yusuf Jum'ah had proposed to Al-Hiyari that he travel to Iraq in March 2003 to join in the fighting against the US forces.


• Jordanian security agencies had no other security records on Al-Shami.


• The lack of a full record on Al-Shami was troubling inasmuch as he had had a close relationship with Isam al-Barqawi, who is also known as Abu-Muhammad al-Maqdisi, the leader of the Bay'at al-Imam group.


• Al-Maqdisi is presently in the custody of the Jordanian State Security Court.


• The relative anonymity of al-Shami is taken to show that most of the members of "Al-Zarqawi's Army" have not been uncovered by U.S. security agencies and are operating deeply underground.


• According to former Iraqi Vice-President Taha Yasin Ramadan the Al-Tawhid wa al-Jihad group has a membership of more than 5000 Arab volunteers in Iraq.

Source: Al-Sharq al-Awsat, London, in Arabic 24 Sep 04
BBC Monitoring

Labels: Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Abu-Anas Al-Shami, Al-Tawhid wa al-Jihad Group, Iraq

The BBC Worldwide Monitoring reports that an Arabic website, www.al-watan.com, contained a report on September 22 from Paris by Abd-al-Karim Abu-al-Nasr stating that “Al-Zarqawi striving to compete with Bin-Ladin, planning big attack along the lines of 11 September.”

Reportedly, the Iraqi intelligence agencies have prepared a report on Abu-Mus’ab al-Zarqawi, the commander of the Tawhid wa Jihad group.

The BBC Monitoring report states: “Al-Watan has learned from informed European diplomatic sources that a prominent European country concerned with the course of events in Iraq received this Iraqi intelligence service report about Jordanian Abu-Mus'ab al-Zarqawi (whose real name is Ahmad al-Khalayilah, age 38). This report contains the following basic information and elements”:

The European sources disclosed that the security and intelligence services in a number of European countries have information that Al-Zarqawi is ‘determined’ to carry out an operation similar to that of 11 September either in the United States or in one of the European countries.

• Al-Zarqawi's group bears the name Tawhid wa Jihad.


• Tawhid wa Jihad includes between 1000 and 1500 fighters from Iraq and from other Arab and Islamic countries.


• The group includes experts in explosives, projectiles, and various assault weapons.


• The inner group is composed of non-Iraqis that Al-Zarqawi has known for years.


• Some prominent members of Tawhid wa Jihad are:
  
  
  • Abu-Ali, a rocket expert who worked in the military system under Saddam Hussein's regime;
  
  
  • Abu-Muhammad, a former Lebanese soldier and an expert in the manufacture and use of explosives. Abu-Muhammad came to Iraq after the U.S. invasion. Prior to his arrival in Iraq, he had spent a few years in Denmark.


• The main headquarters of Tawhid wa Jihad is in the city of Al-Fallujah.


• The leadership of the group is composed of nine "commanders,” responsible for separate combat areas.


• The commander for Baghdad had been Umar Bazyani. has been apprehended and has revealed valuable information about the group. He has been replaced, but the identity of his successor was not revealed in the BBC report.


• The commander for the northern region is Husayn Salim.


• The commander for the Al-Anbar Province is Abdallah Abu-Azzam.


• The commander for Mosul is Abu-Tal’at.


• Al-Zarqawi’s deputy and chief aid is Abu-Mahdi al-Shami. It is believed he may be of Syrian nationality.


• The media department of Tawhid wa Jihad is supervised by Hasan Ibrahim.


• There are 500 fighters operating in Al-Fallujah, under the command of a soldier with the pseudonym of “Abu-Nawas al-Falluji.”


• There are 60 fighters operating in Al-Anbar, 50 in Baghdad, 50 in Samarra, 80 in Al-Diyali Province, and 150 fighters in Al-Qa’im near the Syrian borders.


• Al-Zarqawi’s movement possesses hiding places for weapons and explosives in several locations in Iraq.


• Tawhid wa Jihad wants to transform Iraq into a “hell” for Iraqis by keeping the war buringing and thereby preventing the establishment of a stable and legitimate government through elections. It also seeks to incite civil strife between the Sunnis and the Shi’is.


• According to European diplomatic sources, Abu-Mus’ab al-Zarqawi greatly admires the Al-Qa’idah leader, Usamah bin Ladin, but al-Zarqawi is not subordinate to him.


• Al-Zarqawi aspires instead to compete with Bin-Ladin for the leadership of “the hard-line jihadist Islamic movements.” Al-Zarqawi seeks to turn Iraq into a “new Afghanistan,” a theater for launching terrorist operations that can be exported globally.


• There is some dispute among the sources of the report over whether Al-Zarqawi was a connecting link between Saddam Hussein and Al-Qai’dah. Some believe the communications between Iraqi officials and Al-Qai’dah were direct and carried out without the intercession of Al-Zarqawi.


• ”The European sources disclosed that the security and intelligence services in a number of European countries have information that Al-Zarqawi is ‘determined’ to carry out an operation similar to that of 11 September either in the United States or in one of the European countries. This will be accomplished with the help of secret networks and cells that belong to him and are active and concentrated in some of the European countries and, perhaps, even in the American theatre.”

Labels: Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, al Qaeda, Al-Qa'idah, Al-Qaeda, Al-Qaida, Al-Tawhid wa al-Jihad Group, Iraq, Osama bin Laden, September 11, Umar Bazyani

The New York Times reports that the Iraqi government is planning to release Rihab Rashid Taha soon. The official source denied that the release was related to the demands of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s Tawheed Wal-Jihad (Unification and Holy War), the group that has beheaded two Americans, Jack Hensley and Eugene Armstrong, and is threatening to do the same to Briton Kenneth Bigley.

UPDATE (from the Associated Press)
U.S.: Iraqi Prisoners Won't Be Released (Excerpt below) ALEXANDRA ZAVIS, Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraq (news - web sites)'s leader and U.S. officials moved quickly Wednesday to squelch the idea a top female germ-warfare scientist for Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) would be freed soon, after a senior Iraqi official said the decision had been made to release her. Iraqi militants who beheaded two Americans have threatened to kill a Briton unless female detainees are let go.

"We have not been negotiating and we will not negotiate with terrorists on the release of hostages. No release takes place unless I authorize it." Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi

After the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad said there would be no immediate release of either of the two women in U.S. custody, Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi said there were no immediate plans to free the detainees. Allawi's statement disputed an earlier statement by his Justice Department (news - web sites) that a decision was made to release one of them.

Allawi told The Associated Press that his government has begun reviewing the status of its detainees, including the two female scientists known as "Dr. Germ" and "Mrs. Anthrax" for their involvement in Saddam Hussein's biological weapons programs.

But he said the review process had nothing to do with the current hostage situation and had started weeks ago in Iraq.

Labels: Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Al-Tawhid wa al-Jihad Group, Ayad Allawi, biological weapons, Iraq, Rihab Rashid Taha

From the Associated Press:

The militant group led by al-Qaida ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi posted a gruesome video on a Web site Monday showing the decapitation of a man identified as American civil engineer Eugene Armstrong and said a second hostage - either an American or a Briton - would be killed in 24 hours.

"Now, you have people who love death just like you love life. Killing for the sake of God is their best wish, getting to your soldiers and allies are their happiest moments, and cutting the heads of the criminal infidels is implementing the orders of our lord."

…The militant on the video called President Bush "a dog" and addressed him, saying, "Now, you have people who love death just like you love life. Killing for the sake of God is their best wish, getting to your soldiers and allies are their happiest moments, and cutting the heads of the criminal infidels is implementing the orders of our lord."

("Video on Web site shows beheading of man said to be American hostage', Bassem Mroue, Associated Press, September 20, 2004.)

---

ZONE OF SILENCE

Truth is a terrible thing. We should not share with anyone more than a given person is able to bear. Above all, we should not reveal our own truth, should not force anyone to accept it, to dispose anyone to know things that are beyond human strength.
-ZYGMUNT MYCIELSKI, A QUASI-DIARY

It didn’t happen that way.
Yet no one dares to tell how it did happen.
I am old enough to remember,
and yet like others I repeat the socially acceptable words,
for I do not feel authorized
to reveal a truth too cruel for the human heart.

--Czeslaw Milosz

Labels: Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, al Qaeda, Al-Qa'idah, Al-Qaeda, Al-Qaida, Czeslaw Milosz, Eugene Armstrong, George W. Bush, hostages

The group that seized three Western hostages this week, said to be Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s Tawheed Wal-Jihad (Unification and Holy War), demands the release within 48 hours of all Iraqi women in prisons at Abu Ghraib, near Baghdad, and Umm Qasr, in the south of Iraq. The Associated Press reports that U.S. military deny holding any Iraqi women. Yet, the BBC and the Agence France Presse say otherwise: that the U.S. claims to hold just two Iraqi women. One of them is identified as Rihab Rashid Taha - the woman dubbed Dr Germ for her role in developing Iraqi biological weapons. The other woman is Huda Salih Mahdi Amash, known as Dr Anthrax, who was on the US-led coalition’s list of most wanted officials of Saddam Hussein’s regime. Agence France Press claims that Amash and Taha are detained in Abu Ghraib.

The three hostages - Briton Kenneth Bigley, and his US colleagues Jack Hensley and Eugene Armstrong - were abducted at dawn on September 16 in Baghdad. Groups claiming to have kidnapped two Italian women on September 7 have made similar demands. Simona Pari and Simona Torretta, both 29, were abducted from the Baghdad office of an Italian aid organisation called A Bridge to Baghdad. Also taken were an Iraqi co-worker, Raad Ali' Abdul-Aziz, and an Iraqi woman, Manhaz Bassam, working for Intersos, another Italian aid agency.

The Ansar el Zawahri group, one of the groups claiming to have taken the Italian women, posted a message on an Islamic website that that "the crusading, Zionist, criminal Italian government must free faithful women Muslim prisoners from all crusading, Zionist, criminal jails on Iraqi territory." (“IRAQ: IRAQI GOVT REJECTS ULTIMATUM,” ANSA English Media Service, September 10, 2004). The other group that claims to hold the Italian women, “Islamic Jihad”, demanded, on the website Yaislaw.org, the withdrawal of all Italian troops from Iraq, but also made reference to the earlier demand of the release of all female Iraqi prisoners. (“IRAQ: FRATTINI HOPES FOR RESULTS ON ITALIAN HOSTAGES,” ANSA English Media Service, September 14, 2004)

Labels: Abu Ghraib, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Al-Tawhid wa al-Jihad Group, Dr. Anthrax, Dr. Germ, Eugene Armstrong, hostages, Huda Salih Mahdi Amash, Iraq, Jack Hensley, Keneth Bigley, Rihab Rashid Taha