Posted on 04/23/2005 5:38:33 PM PDT by blam
Shia Iraqi hitmen admit they were paid to join Sunni insurgency
By Akeel Hussein in Baghdad and Colin Freeman
(Filed: 24/04/2005)
Iraqi Shias have admitted taking part in brutal attacks on members of their own religious community after being recruited as paid hitmen for the Sunni terrorist leader, Abu Musab Al Zarqawi.
The confessions to their involvement in murders, kidnappings and car bombings have shocked fellow Shias, who until now have maintained that most of the attacks against them have been carried out by Sunni insurgents intent on starting civil war.
According to statements given to the Iraqi police, gangs of Shia men have admitted taking $1,500 a month - about 10 times the average wage - from Zarqawi's Tawhid and Jihad movement, the al-Qa'eda offshoot widely held as the most ruthless insurgent group in Iraq.
Zarqawi, believed to have been responsible for the beheading of the British hostage, Ken Bigley, last year, makes no secret of his hatred for Shias, whose religious creed is seen as a form of apostasy by followers of his extremist Sunni creed. Over the past year his group has killed hundreds in kidnappings, car bombings and beheadings.
The revelation that Shias themselves had been directly involved in the killings came in a series of dramatic confessions on Terror in the Hands of Justice, a programme broadcast on Iraqi state television in which captured insurgents are quizzed about their crimes. During the broadcast, two cells of Shias admitted being in the pay of Zarqawi.
One self-confessed hitman, who identified himself as Ali Mehdi, a taxi driver from the holy Shia city of Kerbala, said he had led a local cell of four Shia insurgents.
"One time, we captured a minibus with seven soldiers from the Iraqi National Guard in Kerbala," he said. "We drove them into the woods and interrogated them and then shot them with machine guns and threw them into a nearby river."
Mehdi also claimed that his cell took part in mortar attacks on the Black Watch regiment during their temporary posting last November in Latifiyah, south of Baghdad.
Asked why he had carried out attacks on his own people, he said he had been attracted by the salary and the chance of becoming an insurgent "emir" - the title given to fighters who can prove they have killed 10 people or more.
Claims made on the programme are sometimes viewed with scepticism because of suspicions that suspects are beaten into making their confessions. In the case of Mr Mehdi and his accomplices, however, a witness to a kidnapping is understood to have identified the men as being responsible.
Insurgent violence in Iraq is rising once more, confounding optimism after attacks dropped off after elections in January. Yesterday, 13 Iraqis were killed and 49 injured in bomb and mortar strikes in Baghdad.
As we knew all along, it's not about "total devotion to Allah", it's about power and cash.
The insurgents are businessmen and mercenaries. Our troops are the selfless ones, as they have been from the beginning.
Isn't it just great that the Arabs continue to rake in alot of U.S. oil purchase money...so they can keep funding terrorism? It will be gratifying when the U.S. can tell the Arabs to sit on their oil and we are no longer funding terror....if that day comes.
One self-confessed hitman, who identified himself as Ali Mehdi, a taxi driver from the holy Shia city of Kerbala, said he had led a local cell of four Shia insurgents. ... Asked why he had carried out attacks on his own people, he said he had been attracted by the salary and the chance of becoming an insurgent "emir" - the title given to fighters who can prove they have killed 10 people or more.
Very poor behaviour, but I am afraid that there will always be people like that - cheap muscle for any thug work they are recruited for.
Which group is worse? Sunni or Shia?
And why can't we just convert them!
"Black Watch regiment during their temporary posting last November in Latifiyah,"
These frigen news papers cannot get facts straight. The Blackwatch was not temporarily stationed in Latifiyah. They took over the camp in Al Mahmudiaya some ten miles to the north of Latifiyah. However, they did a number of patrols in Latifiyah during their two months or so in the triangle of death. Bottom line is there is no camps in said town. It is a small town just off route 8 below Al Mahmudiaya, which is known to constantly harbor earlier one, Sadar's morons, then mostly later on, people loyal to and working for Saddam. It has a bad reputation. My Marine nephew almost bit the bullet in that town during a raid in late summer of 2004. A number of Iraqi police died in that raid. Insurgents continue to sneak back into this town when the heat is off, then the Marines will pull a SASO raid on them, find new weapon caches, and arrest and or kill a few new commers.
At any rate, perhaps the more both Sunni and Shiite see just how wrong this insurgency is, they will continue to come out in greater numbers and point fingers as some of them are now doing on a more regular bases. The bastards that shot down the chopper a few days back where pointed out by three different Iraqis, according to what I heard on NBC nightly news tonight. Strange, every now and then some L/MSM slips and says something slightly positive about the Iraqi situation.
"Which group is worse? Sunni or Shia? And why can't we just convert them!"
Convert them to what? Neither is worse or better. They came into existence about a hundred years or so after the prophet died. The Sunnis (followers of the prophet's way), believe in only allowing a Caleph to accend that can claim direct family ties to the prophet, whereas the Shiite feel anyone can become a Caleph if they meet the proper critera. The Shiites (followers of the 12 Immams decended from the prophet). In short, one group believes a Caliph must come from a the direct family line of the prophet the other group believe in electing a Caleph. There are also major differences in in how each group believe the supreme authority in law should be handled. The Sunnis believe there is a "hidden Imam" who altimately will come into their mist to rule over all. Sort of a savior figure. He is the last Iman who will surface. Depending on what country these sects reside in has a lot to do with how fundelmental they may be. For instance, the Wahabi's another, more readical sect, who dominate Islam in Saudi Arabia, these guys are frigen nuts, think the rest of the Islamic sects are all infedels. This is why Zarqawi is so radical. After he dropped out of high school, he got connected with a Imam in Jordan who is a Wahabist. The sicko filled Zarqawi with total hate for all those outside of this narrow band sect as well as all others on the planet. Zarqawi really thinks he is doing God's will, and this drives him to continue his bad deeds.
Incidentally, Ossama Bin Laden is also reared in the radical Wahabi train of ideas. So who is worst is all relative. You can be just as hell bent on killing anyone outside your immediate sect and be a member of any of the various sects of Islam. As they continue to show the world just how screwed up they truly are, more countries are going to come to the realization there are terribly wrong fundelmental problems with Islam period. They no longer can make it look like they are all from one Islamic religion, and it is a religion of peace. Quite the opposite.
Turn them over to the Shias. Justice will be swifter.
somewhere on the web - maybe on FReeRepublic, a story was reported about a group of Calif. college kids that found a way to modify a Toyota Prisus and get 200 MPG!!! (they plugged the car into their home electric power to add some juice to the battery) That means tha most people using their car for 15,000 miles per year will need 5-6 tanks of gas. THE END OF THE OIL AGE WILL NOT HAPPEN FROM A LACK OF OIL!
"Convert them all to Christianity or to be PC- Buddhism.
I'm not even Christian. But if you look back on all the inter-Christianity fights they were political. And in nations where the church and state were inseparable."
Guess depends on what source materials one has access to. At any rate, good luck in trying to convert those that do not want to be converted. Of course the history of Islam does have a time proven way to convert those that do not follow allah the moon god and his prophet, convert or die.
Probably Sunni - since their religious leadership consists almost entirely of the Wahhabi fanatics in Saudi Arabia and Al-Qaeda.
They're hard to convert because their religion is incredibly simplistic - explain Christianity to them and their eyes glaze over in confusion.
Islam takes five seconds to explain: "God exists, he demands obedience, kill anyone who disobeys."
The use of Shiite Muslims that Sunni concentrated Al Qaeda hates may indicate a lack of human resource. However, the payment of $1500 per months indicate a large some of financial aid made to Al Qaeda of Iraq.
Ever wonder where electicity comes from?
We can. A bullit will do the trick.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.