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New Shiite Militant Group Vows to Fight Coalition Troops in Iraq

Sunday , July 02, 2006


BEIRUT, Lebanon — A self-styled Shiite Muslim insurgent group made its public debut in a videotape aired Sunday by a Lebanese TV station, pledging to fight U.S., UK and other coalition forces but to spare Iraqi civilians and soldiers.

"We have been patient enough and we have given the political process a chance," the Islamic Resistance in Iraq — Abbas Brigades said in a statement.

It was the first public appearance by a Shiite group claiming a role in an insurgency that has been dominated by Sunni Arabs, who lost the power and privilege they had under Saddam's regime to the majority Shiite Arabs and the minority Sunni Kurds.

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The statement could not be independently authenticated. But emergence of a Shiite group linked to the insurgency could bode ill for security, especially in Shiite areas of southern Iraq which have been relatively quiet.

The statement, read by a TV announcer, said the Americans came to Iraq under the pretext of overthrowing Saddam Hussein's government but are now "building bases, looting our resources, interfering in everything, sowing sectarian sedition between Sunnis and Shiites, Arabs and Kurds."

"The occupation has become the cause of chaos, destruction, loss of resources and bloodletting," the statement said.

The group said it aims to rid Iraq of foreign occupation, preserve its territorial unity. It also pledged to limit its attacks to foreign forces.

"We assure our people that we will only fight the foreign occupier, the Americans, the British and their allies who have occupied our country, looted our resources and spilled out blood," the statement said.

As for Iraqis, the statement added, they will be spared.

"Our purpose is to fight the foreign forces," it said. "We assure them (Iraqis) that operations against civilians are great transgressions. Members of the Iraqi army, police and Iraqi security agencies are our sons, brothers and beloved. They are our hope for the future to preserve the land of Iraq and its security. So are state employees."

The station, New TV, said it received the tape along with the statement exclusively. The three-minute videorecording showed five separate attacks that appeared to show military vehicles and tanks similar to ones used by coalition forces being blown up by roadside bombs.

It also showed in one attack men in Iraqi police uniforms and soldiers wearing beige camouflage fatigues, similar to those worn by coalition troops, dragging a wounded soldier after a bombing and giving him first aid before an armored vehicle arrived to pick him up.

The statement said the footage was from recent operations, but it was impossible to determine when or where it was taken.

Southern Iraq has seen an increase in insurgent attacks in recent months.

Songs accompanying the footage included one that said "I am a Shiite, an Iraqi, an Arab ... I do not accept a truce, I don't compromise."

The name Abbas refers to the half brother of Hussein, who Shiites venerate.

Appearing on the corner of the footage is a palm of a hand, a Shiite symbol, and a picture of what appeared to be one of Iraq's Shiite shrines, a golden-domed mosque with a red flag fluttering atop.
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http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/FE0...80B7631C9F5.htm

Iraqi armed groups reject Maliki plan

Clashes were reported in Baghdad's Adhamiya district


Spokesmen for two of the major Iraqi armed groups have rejected the reconciliation initiative of Iraq's prime minister. The two spoke to Aljazeera on Sunday live from Baghdad.

Ibrahim al-Shammari, spokesman for the al-Jaish al-Islami (Islamic Army), said that the proposal by Nuri al-Maliki, the prime minister, is far from being an "initiative for national reconciliation".

"If the proposal excludes those who fought the Americans, then who is supposed to be meant by this proposal?" al-Shammari said.

"We do not recognise this government. ... We do not mind a technocrat government that carries out the day-to-day interests of Iraqi people."

In an effort to leave the the door open for future dialogue, al-Shammari said talks would have to be with the Americans.

"How can they ask us to disarm and to attend negotiations with a government appointed by the occupation?

"If the Americans are serious, we are ready to have negotiations with them as counterparts and on the basis of equality. Moreover, it is not possible to sit with their agents," he said.

Muhammad Hasan al-Gailani, spokesman for Thwrat al-Ishreen Brigades (Brigades of 1920 revolution) said that the current Iraqi politicians are not the right party to launch a reconciliation initiative.

"The problem is not between the Iraqi resistance and al-Maliki's people, our problem is with the US occupation forces. Why should we deal with al-Maliki's proposals?" al-Gailani said.

"The resistance has a strict stance to resist the occupation and all squads of resistance have rejected the initiative because this initiative didn't talk about the occupation. We have never heard of those names of resistance groups that are said to have agreed on the plan," he said.

Renewed confrontations

Baghdad's oldest district, Adhamiya, witnessed a new round of fighting between its elite residents and US and Iraqi forces.

Saturday's bomb in Baghdad's poor
al-Sadr City neighborhood killed 62

Mortar fire and gunfire rang across the eastern Baghdadi neighbourhood. Fighters armed with rocket-propelled grenades prowled the streets, a Reuters witness said. US armoured vehicles entered the area as US helicopters flew overhead.

It was not immediately clear who was involved in the clashes in Adhamiya, and the US military declined comment on "current operations".

Adhamiya was the last Baghdad neighbourhood to fall to US forces in 2003, after a three-day-battle that left many dead from both sides.

Parliament boycott

A day after the kidnapping of one of its MPs, the Iraqi Accordance Front, the main Sunni Arab political bloc, decided to boycott parliament until its member is released.

Tayseer al-Mashahadani was kidnapped by gunmen who seized her in a mainly Shia district of Baghdad.

Violence in the capital

In more violence that has defied a massive government clampdown in the capital, a car bomb killed two people and wounded 13 outside a popular restaurant in central Baghdad.

A car bomb exploded in Baghdad's Huriya district, wounding 13 people, an Interior Ministry source said. The target of the bomb was not clear.

A civilian was killed and three people were wounded, including a police officer, when a car bomb exploded near a police patrol in central Baghdad, the Interior Ministry said.

Elsewhere

Four civilians, including an elderly woman and a boy, were wounded on Saturday in the town of Khaffajiya, near Haditha, when US troops fired mortar rounds "at a known historical site from which anti-Iraqi forces had previously launched attacks", the US military said in a statement.

Three people were killed and 21 wounded in Mahmudiya, 25km southwest of Baghdad, when a car bomb exploded in a market, police and hospital officials said.

In Buhruz, the village just south of Baquba in which Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed, an Iraqi soldier was wounded when a roadside bomb went off near his patrol, police said.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HG04Ak01.html
Same old bloody ball game for Iraq
By Sami Moubayed

DAMASCUS - Like nearly everybody else around the world, Iraqis gathered over the weekend to watch the soccer World Cup. Since many do not have electricity and cannot afford cable television, Iraqis assembled in cafes and public parks to watch the games on large screens. Such crowded gatherings are prime targets for terrorists, especially late at the night.

The Sunnis of Iraq overwhelmingly support the French soccer team. They could not hide their pleasure when France defeated Brazil on Saturday. The Shi'ites, who at first supported the Iranian team, are currently divided: some are for Germany, others for Italy.

But some insurgents weren't interested in the soccer.

They smuggled explosives on a vegetable truck into Sadr City and carried out a massive bombing in Baghdad's predominantly Shi'ite slum, killing some 65 Iraqis and wounding more than 200, just hours before the France-Brazil match.

The slum's overlord, Muqtada al-Sadr, immediately blamed the attack on the US and the Iraqi government, accusing them of failing in their duty to protect the Shi'ites. Sadr argued that the attack had only occurred because the US military recently forbade his Mahdi Army from patrolling the neighborhood and manning the checkpoints.

It is probable that the attack, carried out by Sunni insurgents, came in response to a statement made by Sadr on Friday, in which he said there would be no reconciliation with the Ba'athists and the Sunnis who were fighting the Shi'ites - that is, supporters of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

Perhaps in retaliation, a 30-year-old Sunni parliamentarian named Tayseer al-Mashhadani, from one of the largest blocs in parliament, was abducted along with eight of her bodyguards. The following day, another deputy - this time from the secular Shi'ites who are allied to the Sunnis, narrowly escaped assassination when a car bomb targeted his entourage in Baghdad. The deputy, Iyad Jamal al-Din, is from the coalition of the pro-US former prime minister, Iyad Allawi.

Adding insult to injury to the Iraqi Sunnis, the Shi'ite National Security Adviser, Mouwafaq al-Rabei, gave a press conference in Baghdad on Sunday, naming 41 prominent Sunnis as responsible for terrorism and calling on neighboring Arab states to assist in their arrest or extradition. Prime on the list was Saddam Hussein's former right-hand man, Izzat Ibrahim al-Duri, who is believed to be leading the Ba'athist insurgency and who remains one of the notables of the Sunni community, although he has been an outlaw since 2003.

The list also included Saddam's wife Sajida and his Jordan-based daughter Raghad, who is popular among Iraqi Sunnis still loyal to the deposed dictator. Some had proposed that Raghad lead the currently disbanded Iraqi Ba'ath Party after Saddam's downfall in 2003, and she had enflamed pro-Saddam emotions in several interviews she gave about her father after the US-led invasion. To have her now portrayed as an instrument of terror was very insulting to the already disgruntled Sunnis.

To ease rising sectarian tensions, US forces summoned 50 popular Sunni clerics in Baghdad, calling on them to tone down their rhetoric and moderate their sermons to avoid enflaming Sunni emotions.

Contrary to what Sadr said, those responsible for the sectarian attacks are neither the Iraqi government nor the Americans, but Osama bin Laden. After Zarqawi was killed on June 8, it was believed that bin Laden would personally take a hand in post-Zarqawi al-Qaeda in Iraq. Everybody argued, based on testimonies of those who know bin Laden, that he was not in favor of Zarqawi's bloody war against the Iraqi Shi'ites.

One year ago, bin Laden's right-hand man, Dr Ayman al-Zawahiri, sent a letter to Zarqawi asking him to stop targeting Shi'ites. The letter was intercepted by the Americans, but Zarqawi did not listen and continued to target Shi'ite shrines, mosques and celebrations. This led to the bombing of the holy Shi'ite shrine in Samarra in February. The Shi'ites immediately retaliated and attacked the Sunnis, blaming them for the bombing.

Shortly before his death, Zarqawi gave a rare videotaped speech publicly calling on the Sunnis to fight the "rejectionist" Shi'ites. All of this, it was believed, was not what bin Laden wanted, but Zarqawi had become so strong in Iraq that bin Laden had no authority over him.

After his death, bin Laden was supposed to play the wise man, trying to bridge the gulf between Shi'ites and Sunnis created by Zarqawi, to unify the insurgency against the US and its Iraqi allies in the cabinet of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.

But the exact opposite has happened. This weekend, while the Iraqis were watching soccer, bin Laden appeared in a 19-minute audio message - his second in two days - calling on the Sunnis to rise against the Shi'ites. This was his 16th recording since September 11, 2001.

On Friday, bin Laden had appeared in another audio tape, paying tribute to Zarqawi and saying that war would continue, despite the reconciliation plan proposed by Prime Minister Maliki to the Sunni insurgents. He called on US President George W Bush to hand over "the hero's [Zarqawi] body" to his family so he could receive a proper funeral. A week earlier, Ayman al-Zawahiri had also paid homage to Zarqawi.

Both messages were an early warning to the Shi'ites that bin Laden - far from being opposed to Zarqawi's anti-Shi'ite campaign, was actually a part of it. Bin Laden addressed the Sunnis on Saturday saying: "Your Muslim nation is looking for you and praying for your victory. You are their hope after God. You are God's trusted soldiers who will liberate the ummah [the Muslim nation] from the serfdom of the crusaders in our countries."

"Do not be fooled by the invitations to join political parties and take part in the so-called political process," he added. "It is not possible that many of the people of the south [Shi'ites] violate, alongside America and its allies, [the Sunni cities of] Ramadi, Fallujah and Mosul ... that their areas would be safe from retaliation and harm."

He also paid tribute to Zarqawi's successor Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, ordering him to fight "only the Americans and their allies" and advising him not to break from the Mujahideen Shura Council. "Dispute is evil as a whole and [being part of a group] is mercy."

Counter-terrorism expert Laura Mansfield expressed concern over bin Laden's call on Muhajir to stick to the Shura Council, saying that this gives it great legitimacy. "It is likely that bin Laden sees the Shura Council as the foundation upon which an Islamic government in Iraq can be built."

The White House responded to bin Laden's tapes, saying: "These terrorists offer nothing in their ideology and messages beyond further fighting, conflict, and misery."

Meanwhile, as all of this was happening in Iraq, the prime minister was elsewhere, conducting a regional tour to lobby support for his reconciliation plan. The trip, which starts with Saudi Arabia, also includes Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates. The reconciliation plan, which calls on Sunnis to lay down their arms and promises a pardon for those not convicted of killing fellow Iraqis, has not surprisingly been turned down by Muqtada al-Sadr, who refuses dialogue with Maliki. It has been supported, however, by the wise grand ayatollah of the Shi'ites, Ali al-Sistani. Mahmud al-Mashhadani, the Speaker of parliament, also began a regional tour for the same purpose; he is supposed to visit Iran and Bahrain, two countries inhabited by Shi'ites.

Clearly, everybody has a different agenda for Iraq. Maliki's agenda is very different from that of bin Laden. Maliki wants to build a nation and bin Laden wants to break one. Stuck in the middle are the Iraqis, whose political and religious differences are increasingly dividing them.

The only thing Iraqis have in common today is the World Cup. It has overshadowed everyone and everything, including bin Laden's recorded message. But the games end in six days and the violence will again be the only game in town.

Sami Moubayed is a Syrian political analyst.

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