IRAQ: U.S. Troops Arrest Relative of Al-Douri

The Las Vegas Sun ^ | : February 04, 2004 at 11:55:16 PST | CHRIS BRUMMITT AP

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

fyi

[Sacajaweau]

btt

[Coop]

Getting a little closer. Praying they nab him any day now!

[nuconvert]

Closing in on him.........

[Cap Huff]

No sooner do I make a comment about nothing re: al-Douri, and here we have some encouraging news.

[TheDon]

Human Rights Watch, taking over for Bagdad Bob.

[justshutupandtakeit]

My message to Human Rights Watch is GFY.

[Cap Huff]

Unfortunately I’ve not mastered the technique of posting articles, but there is some interesting news about the two car blasts in Arbil. If you do a google search on "Ansar al-Sunna" you come up with a couple of interesting articles.


"AN Islamist group, Ansar al-Sunna, with alleged links to al-Qaeda, claimed responsibility today for the deadly twin suicide attacks in the northern Iraqi Kurdish city of Arbil, according to an Islamist Internet site."

>>snip<<


"A television station owned by the PUK said today a Yemeni had been arrested in connection with the Arbil bombings, the deadliest attacks in Iraq since the ouster of Saddam Hussein's regime last April."

"The suspect was seized in a hotel in the northern oil centre of Kirkuk and explosives were found in his possession, the station said."

There's also some info in a CBS story about a group called "Jaish Ansar al-Sunni" which seems like it may be the same group. They apparently put out a rather sophisticated recruiting video and is called a new group.

[Cap Huff]

Suicide blasts, not car blasts. Getting late here.

[Angelus Errare]

Jaish Ansar al-Sunnah roughly translates as "Army of the Companions/Partisans of Orthodoxy" and is an al-Qaeda umbrella organization consisting of Jaish Mohammed (Army of Mohammed, an al-Qaeda organization that is active in Fallujah), Ansar al-Islam (which operates mainly in the Kurdish areas), and al-Jihad al-Salafiyyah al-Sunnah, which operates in the south.

I swear sometimes you need a chart to keep all of these groups straight.

[Redbob]

Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, or Izzat his cousin?

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

If you have some links or the URL lay them on here and I can put links for the articles and post some also.

[Cap Huff]

Here’s the two links:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/02/03/eveningnews/main597738.shtml


http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,8588875%255E1702,00.html

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

A google search turned up this item from the Sudan:

At Least 20 Killed in Attack on Sudan Mosque

___________________________________________________________________________________

December 8, 2000

At Least 20 Killed in Attack on Sudan Mosque

At least 20 worshippers were killed and another 40 wounded when gunmen opened fire in a Mosque near the Sudanese capital of Khartoum Friday night.

The Mosque was packed with Ramadan worshippers
The attack took place during Friday's evening prayers in the village of Jarafa on the outskirts of Omdurman, a suburb of Khartoum. The mosque, belonging to the moderate Ansar al-Sunna sect, was packed with worshippers attending the evening prayers closing a day of fasting during the month of Ramadan.

Police rushing to the scene killed an assailant armed with a Kalashnikov after a brief firefight. Ambulances and private cars were used to rush the injured to a hospital in Omdurman. Some of the wounded were said to be in critical condition.

Sudanese television initially reported that a lone gunman had fired at random with an automatic rifle, but witnesses said that there were three or more assailants. One witness was quoted by the official Egyptian Middle East News Agency (MENA) as saying that all but one of the gunmen fled before the police arrived on the scene.

Assailant reportedly was a member of al-Takfir group
A police spokesman identified the slain gunman as Abbas Baqir Abbas, a  member of the extremist Takfir wal-Hijra group.

Al-Takfir wal-Hijrah, whose name translates as "Redemption and Flight," a reference to the flight of the Prophet Mohammed from Mecca to Medina, at the beginning of Islamic history. The movement, which originated in Egypt advocates the establishment of a "purified" society, based solely on Islamic law, or Shariah. This society is to be the core of a revolution in which all secular Islamic governments are overthrown and replaced with the rule of Shariah. Its members reject secular power in Muslim countries, and call for the restoration of the Islamic "Caliphate" as the only legitimate leadership in Arab and Islamic countries.

Third major attack on al-Sunna mosques
The Ansar al-Sunna sect is not connected to any political group in Sudan, but has links with the orthodox Sunni Muslim Wahhabi sect allied with the Saud royal family in Saudi Arabia. Ansar al-Sunna mosques in Sudan have come under attack twice before.

In an attack similar to Friday's incident, 16 people were killed when a mosque of the Ansar al-Sunna sect in Omdurman was attacked by three gunmen. The attack was led by Mohammed Abdullah al-Khilaifi, an Islamist of Libyan origin who had fought in Afghanistan. One of the attackers was killed by police, while al-Khilaifi and a Sudanese were executed in 1995. In a similar incident in 1996, 12 people were killed in Omdurman in an attack on another Ansar al-Sunna mosque.

It was not clear if Friday's attack was linked to the upcoming Sudanese elections, due to commence on Monday. Most of the opposition parties are boycotting the polls. President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, whose 1989 military coup brought an Islamist government to power, is thus all but guaranteed re-election.

Sources: Reuters, Agence France Presse, BBC

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Posted the first one, there is some good info in there.

IRAQ: Tape Shows Attacks On U.S. Troops

[Dog]

Thanks for the ping......want to bet this is his son.....another nasty piece of work.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Need to put the link here for the second one:

IRAQ: Al-Qaeda linked group claims blasts ( for the deadly twin suicide attacks in Arbil)

[Coop]

My message to Human Rights Watch is...

Good for you? :-)

[Cap Huff]

Maybe this is al-Douri:

"U.S. forces capture six 'closely tied' to Saddam"

>>snip<<

"The raids around Saddam's hometown of Tikrit were targeting Iraqis suspected of involvement in attacks on U.S. troops and helicopters, said Lt. Col. Steve Russell, a battalion commander in the 4th Infantry Division."

"'The individuals are closely tied to the Saddam family and the former regime. They represent some of the last of the main network that we have been targeting for many months,' Russell said without providing details."

>>snip<<

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2004-02-06-iraq_x.htm