AL-QAEDA IN IRAQ

'Al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI)' is a Khawarij and terrorist group which is playing an active role in the Iraqi insurgency. The group was led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi until his death in 2006, and it is now believed to be led by Abu Hamza al-Muhajir^[1] (aka Abu Ayyub al-Masri^[2]).
AQI is among Iraq's most feared militant organisations^[3] and is widely regarded as the United States' most formidable enemy in Iraq.^[4] Others suggest that the threat posed by AQI is exaggerated^[5] and that the opinion among many scholars is that a "heavy focus on al-Qaeda obscures a much more complicated situation on the ground."^[6] According to the U.S. government report, this group is most clearly associated with foreign terrorist cells operating in Iraq and has specifically targeted international forces and Iraqi citizens. AQI's operations are predominately Iraq-based, but the US State Department alleges that the group maintains an extensive logistical network throughout the Middle East, North Africa, Iran, South Asia, and Europe.^[7] AQI's top leaders are usually foreigners; it is also estimated that foreigners make up at least 70 percent of AQI's 1,000 to several thousand fighters.^[8] Other estimates suggest AQI numbers around 850, about 3 to 5 percent of the Sunni insurgency.
The group is a direct successor of the al-Zarqawi's previous organization known as ''Jama'at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad'' ("Group of Monotheism and the Holy Struggle"). Since its official statement declaring allegiance to the Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda terrorist network in October 2004, the group identifies itself as '''Tanzim Qaidat Al-Jihad fi Bilad al-Rafidayn (QJBR)''' ("Organization of Jihad's Base in the Country of the Two Rivers").^[9]

Goals

In a July 2005 letter to al-Qaeda deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, al-Zarqawi outlined a four-stage plan to expand the Iraq War, which included expelling U.S. forces from Iraq, establishing an Islamic authority (caliphate), spreading the conflict to Iraq's secular neighbors and engaging in battle with Israel. Consistent with their stated plan, the affiliated groups were linked to regional attacks outside Iraq, such as the Sharm al-Sheikh bombings in Egypt, and the Aqaba rocket attack.

Umbrella organizations

Logo of Islamic State of Iraq

In January 2006, AQI created an umbrella organization called 'Mujahideen Shura Council' (MSC) in an attempt to unify Sunni insurgents in Iraq. However, its efforts to recruit Iraqi Sunni nationalists and secular groups were undermined by its violent tactics against civilians and its extreme Islamic fundamentalist^[10] doctrine. Because of these impediments, the attempt was largely unsuccessful.
AQI used to claim its attacks under the MSC, until mid-October 2006 when Abu Ayyub al-Masri declared the self-styled 'Islamic State of Iraq' (ISI), an another front which included the Shura Council factions. The AQI now claims its attacks under the ISI,^[11] and claims it's answering to the alleged leader of the organization, Abu Abdullah al-Rashid al-Baghdadi, whose existence is now disputed. According to a study compiled by US intelligence agencies, the ISI have plans to seize power and turn the country into a Sunni Islamic state.^[12]

History

In 2004, AQI kidnapped Shosei Koda, a Japanese citizen and murdered him on October 30. On December 19, the group bombed a Shiite funeral procession in Najaf and main bus station in nearby Karbala, killing at least 60 in the Shiite holy cities. The responsibility for a bombing in Baghdad directed at US forces that killed 35 children and seven adults remains unclear.^[13]
In 2005, AQI largely focused on executing high-profile and coordinated suicide attacks. AQI claimed responsibility for numerous attacks which were primarily aimed at civilians, the Iraqi Government, and Iraqi Security Forces. AQI claimed responsibility for attacks against the voters during the Iraqi legislative election, the coordinated suicide attacks outside the Sheraton Ishtar and Palestine Hotel in Baghdad on October 24. On April 2, AQI fighters attacked the Abu Ghraib prison in a combined suicide and conventional attack. In July, al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for the kidnapping and execution of Ihab Al-Sherif, Egypt's envoy to Iraq.^[14]^[15] A July 2005 three-day series of suicide attacks, including Musayyib marketplace bombing, left at least 150 people dead and more than 260 wounded.^[16] Al-Zarqawi claimed responsibility for the September 2005 massacre of mostly Shiite unemployed workers in Baghdad, which killed 160 people and injured 570.^[17]

Since 2006

The attacks blamed on or claimed by the AQI attacks kept increasing in 2006. In one of the incidents, two American soldiers, (Thomas Lowell Tucker and Kristian Menchaca) were captured, tortured and beheaded by the ISI. In an another incident, four Russian embassy officials were abducted and executed. AQI and its umbrella groups were blamed for multiple attacks targeting Shiites, some of which AQI claimed responsibility for. In many cases it's unknown if the attack was the work of AQI itself or its allied groups. The same trend continued through the 2007, as the AQI-led ISI claimed responsibility for attacks such as the March 23 assassination attempt of Sunni Deputy Prime Minister Salam al-Zaubai, the April 12 Iraqi Parliament bombing, and the May capture and subsequent execution of three American soldiers.
In 2006, several key members of the AQI were killed or captured by the American and allied forces, including al-Zarqawi killed on June 7, 2006, his spiritual adviser Sheik Abd-Al-Rahman, and the alleged "number two" deputy leader Hamid Juma Faris Jouri al-Saeedi. On May 3, 2007, the ISI leader al-Baghdadi was declared to have been killed in Baghdad, but his death was later denied by the group (later, al-Baghdadi was declared by the U.S. to be non-existant). There were also conflicting reports on al-Masri.

Other activities

The group is currently one of the most active among the Iraqi insurgent groups, especially in its current stronghold in Al Anbar province. Over a three-month period in 2005, al-Zarqawi's affiliates were reportedly responsible for more than 1,700 attacks on Coalition and Iraqi forces in Mosul alone. Many of these were suicide attacks and improvised explosive device (IED) attacks, typically using cars and other motor vehicles.
In May 2007 the U.S. forces announced the release of dozens of Iraqis who were tortured by AQI as a part of the group's intimidation campaign.^[18] The U.S. also claimed the group was at least of one of the forces behind the wave of the chlorine bombings in Iraq which affected hundreds of people through the series of crude chemical warfare attacks snce the late 2006.[1] According to the rival insurgent faction, the group is even demanding money in return for "protection", killing members of the families (especially wealthy ones) when not paid.[2]

Inciting sectarian violence

Ayman al-Zawahiri praising Abu Musab al-Zarqawi after the death of the latter in June 2006

The attacks against civilians were often targeted at the Iraqi Shia majority in an attempt to incite sectarian violence. Al-Zarqawi purportedly declared an all-out war on Shiites^[19] while claiming responsibility for a series of September 2005 mosque bombings which killed at least 74 people.^[20] The same month, a statement claiming to be by AQI rejected as "fake" a letter allegedly written by al-Zawahiri, in which he appears to question the insurgents' tactics in attacking Shiites in Iraq.^[21]
U.S. and Iraqi officials accused AQI of trying to slide Iraq into full-scale civil war between Iraq's majority Shiites and minority Sunni Arabs with an orchestrated campaign of a civilian massacres and a number of highly provocative attacks against the high-profile religious targets.^[22] With attacks like the first al-Askari Mosque bombing in Samarra, the deadly one-day series of bombings which killed at least 215 in the Baghdad's Shiite district of Sadr City, and the second al-Askari bombing, AQI succeeded in provoking the Shiite militias to unleash a wave of retaliatory attacks, resulting in a plague of death squad-style killings and spiraling further sectarian violence. This religious/ethnic violence between the Iraqis is sometimes called the "civil war in Iraq" by the observers.
As of mid-2007, practically all of the suicide bombings targeting civilians in Iraq are now practically routinely blamed on AQI and its associated groups by the military and government sources.

Operations outside Iraq

AQI claimed an attempted chemical bomb plot in Amman, Jordan in April 2004.^[23] On December 3, 2004, AQI attempted to blow up a Iraqi-Jordanian border crossing, but failed to do so (in 2006, a Jordanian court sentenced Zarqawi (''in absentia'') and two of his associates to death for their involvement in the plot^[24]).
AQI also increased its operations outside Iraq by claiming credit for three attacks in 2005:

★ Suicide bomb attacks against hotels which killed 60 people in Amman, Jordan, on November 9 2005;^[25]

★ Rocket attacks that narrowly missed the USS ''Kearsarge'' and the USS ''Ashland'' in Jordan and which also targeted Eilat in Israel;

★ Firing of several ''Katyusha'' rockets into Israel from Lebanon in December.
In addition, an AQI operative was arrested in Turkey in August 2005 while planning an operation to target Israeli cruise ships. In Lebanon, the Palestinian militant group Fatah al-Islam (which was destroyed in the 2007 Lebanon conflict) was linked to AQI and led by Zarqawi's former companion who fought in Iraq.^[26] The AQI was also implicted in the 2006 German train bombing plot.

Conflicts with the other Sunni groups

The first reports of a split and even armed clashes between AQI and its allies, and the other insurgent Sunni groups date back to 2005.^[27]^[28] In the summer of 2006, local Sunni tribes and insurgent groups, including the prominent Islamist-Nationalist group Islamic Army in Iraq (IAI), began to speak of their dissatisfaction of the al-Qaeda and its tactics,^[29] and openly criticized the foreign fighters for their deliberate targeting of civilian targets (especially Sunni).
In September 2006, thirty Anbar tribes formed their own local alliance called Anbar Salvation Council (ASC), directed specifically to counter al-Qaeda ("terrorist") forces in the province,^[30]^[31]^[32] openly siding with the government and the U.S. troops.^[33]^[34] Since then, AQI forces have retaliated against local Sunni tribesmen and other insurgent groups for negotiating a deals with the U.S. forces and the Iraqi government to route out al-Qaeda-alligned militants. The extremist group supposedly played a vital role in the assassination of Harith Dhaher Khamis al-Dhari, a Sunni Nationalist insurgent leader who headed the 1920 Revolution Brigade.[3] On March 17, 2007, scores of people were killed when a truck bomb exploded near a Sunni mosque in Fallujah where the local imam had criticized the AQI.^[35]
On April 17, 2007, the IAI spokesman accused AQI of killing at least 30 members of the Islamic Army and alleged that the leader of the Islamic State of Iraq, al-Baghdadi, had "broken the Islamic law".^[36] The same statement also alleged that AQI has also killed members of the Jaish al-Mujahideen and Ansar al-Sunna, and called on Osama bin Laden to personally intervene to rein-in the al-Qaeda in Iraq.[4] On the same day, ISI released an audio tape in a man claimed to be al-Baghdadi attempted to soothe the tensions with other major Sunni insurgent groups.^[37] On May 1, 2007, the government stated that al-Masri was killed by the ASC fighters.^[38] Four days later, AQI released an audio tape in which a man claimed to be al-Masri warned Sunnis not to take part in the political process, and claimed that reports of internal fighting between his group and other Sunni groups were "lies and fabrications".^[39]^[40]
In June 2007, the growing hostility between the foreign-influenced religious extremists and other Sunni nationalists led to a gun battles between the groups in Baghdad.^[41]^[42] Meanwhile, the U.S. military began arming moderate insurgent factions on the promise to fight al-Qaeda in Iraq and not the Americans.^[43] The Islamic Army, however, reached a ceasefire with AQI on June 6 2007, yet still refusing to sign on to the ISI.^[44]

Known leaders and key members

★ Abu Musab al-Zarqawi (killed 2006)

★ Abu Ayyub al-Masri (possibly killed 2007, claimed to be alive)

★ Hamid Juma Faris Jouri al-Saeedi (captured 2006)

★ Abu Abdullah al-Rashid al-Baghdadi (existence disputed)

★ Sheik Abd-Al-Rahman (killed 2006)

★ Abu Azzam (killed 2005)

★ Khaled al-Mashhadani (captured 2007)[5]

★ Muharib Abdul Latif al-Jubouri (killed 2007)^[45]

★ Abu Abd al-Rahman al-Iraqi^[46]^[47]

References

External links

★ Al-Qaeda in Iraq, GlobalSecurity.org

★ Country Reports on Terrorism, United States Department of State

★ News about Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, including commentary and archival articles published in The New York Times, ''New York Times''

Articles

★ The Myth of AQI by Andrew Tilghman October 2007 ''Washington Monthly''

★ In motley array of Iraqi foes, why does U.S. spotlight al-Qaida? Associated Press on June 1, 2007

★ Is al-Qaeda on the Run in Iraq? TIME on May 23 2007

★ Sunni Muslim sheiks join US in fighting Al Qaeda ''Christian Science Monitor'' on May 3, 2007

★ Iraq: Al-Qaeda Tactics Lead To Splits Among Insurgents Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty April 17, 2007

★ Al-Qaeda in Iraq May Not Be Threat Here; Intelligence Experts Say Group Is Busy On Its Home Front Washington Post, March 18, 2007

Videos

★ Al-Qaeda in Iraq Al Jazeera English on May 20 2007

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