Friday, April 13, 2007
Islamic Army in Iraq says Iran is a bigger enemy than the U.S.
Insurgency, Politics
(AP) - An Iraqi militant group has highlighted the split in the ranks of the Iraqi insurgency by having its spokesman give a television interview in which he accuses al-Qaida and its umbrella organization of killing its members and pursuing the wrong policies. "The gap has widened and the injustices committed by some brothers in al-Qaida have increased," Ibrahim al-Shimmari told Al-Jazeera television in an interview broadcast Wednesday and repeated Thursday.
Al-Shimmari was filmed sitting with Al-Jazeera's interviewer in an undisclosed location. He was wearing a red-and-white checkered keffiyeh but his face was blurred by video engineering. Al-Shimmari is the spokesman for the Islamic Army in Iraq, a Sunni militant group that first aired its grievances against al-Qaida and umbrella Islamic State of Iraq on its Web site last week. He took the division further in the TV interview, putting his name to the charges and giving specifics in answer to questions. He accused al-Qaida of killing 30 members of the Islamic Army, and said the Islamic State of Iraq's claim to constitute a state was both inaccurate and incorrect policy.
"We don't recognize (the Islamic State of Iraq). It is void. There is no state under crusader occupation. There is resistance," al-Shimmari said. He was more critical of Iranian influence in Iraq than American, apparently out of opposition to the growing power of Iraq's Shiite majority, a trend that Shiite-dominant Iran supports. "Our goal is to free Iraq from the American and Iranian occupation. There is a bigger Iranian occupation than the American one," he said. "The United States does not claim that Iraq is part of America. It came for its own interests, and that includes its imperialist project ... But Iran regards Iraq as a part of itself."
Al-Shimmari's comments provoked a series of postings on Islamic Web sites by militant sympathizers, who said they were saddened by the split. He said the Islamic Army used to be very close to al-Qaida in Iraq, but the two groups had increasingly diverged since al-Qaida leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed in a U.S. airstrike last June. "They killed 30 members of the Islamic Army," he said of al-Qaida.
He attacked Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Islamic State of Iraq, accusing him of violating Islamic law as well as sanctioning the "assassination" of fighters and forcing others to surrender their weapons to the umbrella group. The Islamic State of Iraq groups eight Sunni insurgent factions, of whom al-Qaida is deemed the most important. "The dream of every Muslim is to live in an Islamic nation. But an Islamic nation cannot be created in this way. It cannot be created under occupation," al-Shimmari said.
"We have sent our advice to the brothers in al-Qaida, and we sent messages to Sheik Osama bin Laden, the other jihad groups and all the religious scholars," he added, naming the founding leader of the al-Qaida network. He seemed eager to indicate that the division was not irreconcilable. He said the Islamic Army had refrained from turning its guns on al-Qaida.
An Islamic Web site on Thursday carried a message by a person who gave his name as Nabil al-Athari. "It is sad to see what is happening among the fighters in Iraq," he wrote. "The Islamic Army is Sunni and it has been fighting the enemies of religion for a while, just like the Islamic State of Iraq. Both did a lot. We need to bring the two groups together."
Al-Shimmari was filmed sitting with Al-Jazeera's interviewer in an undisclosed location. He was wearing a red-and-white checkered keffiyeh but his face was blurred by video engineering. Al-Shimmari is the spokesman for the Islamic Army in Iraq, a Sunni militant group that first aired its grievances against al-Qaida and umbrella Islamic State of Iraq on its Web site last week. He took the division further in the TV interview, putting his name to the charges and giving specifics in answer to questions. He accused al-Qaida of killing 30 members of the Islamic Army, and said the Islamic State of Iraq's claim to constitute a state was both inaccurate and incorrect policy.
"We don't recognize (the Islamic State of Iraq). It is void. There is no state under crusader occupation. There is resistance," al-Shimmari said. He was more critical of Iranian influence in Iraq than American, apparently out of opposition to the growing power of Iraq's Shiite majority, a trend that Shiite-dominant Iran supports. "Our goal is to free Iraq from the American and Iranian occupation. There is a bigger Iranian occupation than the American one," he said. "The United States does not claim that Iraq is part of America. It came for its own interests, and that includes its imperialist project ... But Iran regards Iraq as a part of itself."
Al-Shimmari's comments provoked a series of postings on Islamic Web sites by militant sympathizers, who said they were saddened by the split. He said the Islamic Army used to be very close to al-Qaida in Iraq, but the two groups had increasingly diverged since al-Qaida leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed in a U.S. airstrike last June. "They killed 30 members of the Islamic Army," he said of al-Qaida.
He attacked Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Islamic State of Iraq, accusing him of violating Islamic law as well as sanctioning the "assassination" of fighters and forcing others to surrender their weapons to the umbrella group. The Islamic State of Iraq groups eight Sunni insurgent factions, of whom al-Qaida is deemed the most important. "The dream of every Muslim is to live in an Islamic nation. But an Islamic nation cannot be created in this way. It cannot be created under occupation," al-Shimmari said.
"We have sent our advice to the brothers in al-Qaida, and we sent messages to Sheik Osama bin Laden, the other jihad groups and all the religious scholars," he added, naming the founding leader of the al-Qaida network. He seemed eager to indicate that the division was not irreconcilable. He said the Islamic Army had refrained from turning its guns on al-Qaida.
An Islamic Web site on Thursday carried a message by a person who gave his name as Nabil al-Athari. "It is sad to see what is happening among the fighters in Iraq," he wrote. "The Islamic Army is Sunni and it has been fighting the enemies of religion for a while, just like the Islamic State of Iraq. Both did a lot. We need to bring the two groups together."
Labels: Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, Al Qaeda, Ibrahim al-Shemmari, Iran, Islamic Army in Iraq, Islamic State of Iraq
Thursday, April 12, 2007
Iraq Islamic Army may be willing to negotiate with U.S.
Security
(DPA) - A spokesman for an Iraqi insurgent group said in an interview with al-Jazeera television Wednesday that his group was willing to negotiate with the United States if the power withdraws from the country. Ibrahim al-Shemmari, spokesman of the predominantly Sunni Iraq Islamic Army (IIA), offered to enter into negotiations with the United States under certain 'conditions' provided that an outside body like the European Union, Russia or Turkey hosted talks.
Al-Shemmari vowed that IIA fighters would continue resistance against US troops until they leave the country, but said the group was prepared to enter into negotiations if the US Congress made a 'binding decision' to withdraw US troops. 'Our second condition is that the Americans recognize the resistance as a legitimate party,' he said.
Al-Shemmari vowed that IIA fighters would continue resistance against US troops until they leave the country, but said the group was prepared to enter into negotiations if the US Congress made a 'binding decision' to withdraw US troops. 'Our second condition is that the Americans recognize the resistance as a legitimate party,' he said.
He also said in an interview with al-Jazeera television that there was a 'widening gap' between his group and al- Qaeda forces in Iraq. And he claimed that insurgent forces have killed 25,000 Americans - a number that is disputed by carefully kept US figures. Al-Shemmari described his group as including 'faithful elements' from the dissolved Iraqi army but excluding 'all Baathists.'
Al-Shemmari charged that the gap with al-Qaeda came about after it had killed 40 IIA fighters, but vowed that the group was seeking reconciliation to unify all the insurgent groups and fight until the US troops leave the country. 'We are keen on the unification of all resistance groups. We have written for this end to Osama bin Laden and other scholars,' al- Shemmari said.
In Washington, the private think tank, Brookings Institute, which keeps a widely respected tally of deaths in Iraq, reports only 470 deaths of foreign non-Iraqi private military contractors. In all, it estimated there were more than 20,000 private military contractors serving in Iraq, but did not specify their nationality.
Another website, Iraq Body Count, estimates Iraqi civilian deaths at 61,000 to 67,000. Al-Shemmari faulted the official figures of the US military command in Iraq, which officially puts the number of troops killed in the past four years at about 3,243. He said the number neglected 'the mercenaries and personnel involved in the logistic services.'
Al-Shemmari said that the former Iraqi army 'included both faithful personnel and corrupt Baathists,' which was why Baathists were excluded from the IIA. He dismissed as 'propaganda' reports that Baathists, belonging to the ruling party of former President Saddam Hussein, represented the backbone of the Iraqi insurgency. He pointed out that the IIA had 'benefited' from all previous guerrilla warfare experiments, including the Vietnam war, in its operations against the US-led multinational force in Iraq. He blasted the government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, a Shiite, as a 'sectarian cabinet which is part of the Iranian project'.
In Washington, the private think tank, Brookings Institute, which keeps a widely respected tally of deaths in Iraq, reports only 470 deaths of foreign non-Iraqi private military contractors. In all, it estimated there were more than 20,000 private military contractors serving in Iraq, but did not specify their nationality.
Another website, Iraq Body Count, estimates Iraqi civilian deaths at 61,000 to 67,000. Al-Shemmari faulted the official figures of the US military command in Iraq, which officially puts the number of troops killed in the past four years at about 3,243. He said the number neglected 'the mercenaries and personnel involved in the logistic services.'
Al-Shemmari said that the former Iraqi army 'included both faithful personnel and corrupt Baathists,' which was why Baathists were excluded from the IIA. He dismissed as 'propaganda' reports that Baathists, belonging to the ruling party of former President Saddam Hussein, represented the backbone of the Iraqi insurgency. He pointed out that the IIA had 'benefited' from all previous guerrilla warfare experiments, including the Vietnam war, in its operations against the US-led multinational force in Iraq. He blasted the government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, a Shiite, as a 'sectarian cabinet which is part of the Iranian project'.
Labels: Al Qaeda, Ibrahim al-Shemmari, Iraq Islamic Army, negotiations, U.S.
