Posted on 03/10/2006 5:48:59 PM PST by blam
Sunni insurgents 'have al-Zarqawi running for cover'
By Oliver Poole in Baghdad
(Filed: 11/03/2006)
Insurgent groups in one of Iraq's most violent provinces claim that they have purged the region of three quarters of al-Qa'eda's supporters after forming an alliance to force out the foreign fighters.
If true, it would mark a significant victory in the fight against Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the head of al-Qa'eda in Iraq, and could partly explain the considerable drop in suicide bombings in Iraq recently.
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi
"We have killed a number of the Arabs, including Saudis, Egyptians, Syrians, Kuwaitis and Jordanians," said an insurgent representative in the western province of Anbar.
The claims were partly supported by the defence ministry, which said it had evidence that Zarqawi and his followers were fleeing Anbar to cities and mountains near the Iranian border.
It is this move that is believed to have prompted a statement a fortnight ago from the insurgent groups in the central city of Hawija that they were declaring war on al-Qae'da. It is being interpreted by intelligence experts as a response to an unwanted influx of foreign fighters seeking refuge. Iraq's Sunni Muslim insurgents had originally welcomed al-Qa'eda into the country, seeing it as a powerful ally in its fight against the American occupation.
But relations became strained when insurgents supported calls for Sunnis to vote in last December's election, a move they saw as essential to break the Shia hold on government but which al-Qa'eda viewed as a form of collaboration. It became an outright split when a wave of bombings killed scores of people in Anbar resulting in a spate of tit-for-tat killings.
In reaction, the insurgent groups formed their own anti-al-Qa'eda militia, the Anbar Revolutionaries. The group has a core membership of 100 people, all of whom had relatives killed by al-Qa'eda. It is led by Ahmed Ftaikhan, a former Saddam-era military intelligence officer.
It claims to have killed 20 foreign fighters and 33 Iraqi sympathisers. Many more are said to have fled. The United States has confirmed that six of Zarqawi's deputies were killed in Ramadi.
Osama al-Jadaan, a tribal chief, has claimed that with the support of the Iraqi army his supporters have captured hundreds of foreign fighters, and has sought to prevent jihadis entering the country from Syria.
wouldn't want this news to get out in the U.S.
Gee, I haven't heard that phrase mentioned too much on the nightly news...
I was kinda mixed up there for a moment, thinking this was some sort of old news from Nov. 3, But I caught on, and am delighted with what I read. The rival sects have enough on their hands without the evil doings of al-Qae'da.
No torture for the captives?
Absolutely not. These guys are not in the captive-taking business. They simply kill them whereever they find them.
It's an old Mid-east tradition.
Does Iraq and the Mid-East in general remind anyone but me of the Monty Python movie, "The Life of Brian"?
I can't help laughing when I remember the scene where all the insurgent groups against the Romans run into each other while sneaking into the palace for a suicide mission--and start fighting among themselves.
The noise alerts the Romans who come into the all and are so non-plussed at what's going on that they just stand there watching, shaking their heads and laughing.
The funniest movie of all time IMHO.
http://iraqthemodel.blogspot.com/2006/03/where-is-zarqawi.html
Iraq The Model reports that Sheikh Usama al-Jad'aan (the chief sheikh of the Karabla tribes of Anbar) has identified most of their captured Al Qaeda recruits now coming from Jordan in the South.
Now, this same Sheikh claims that Zarqawhi fled North and East to Afghanistan via Salahiden/Kirkuk and Iran. Frankly, I have a different opinion.
I still maintain that Zarqawi fled South to Lebanon via Jordan (hence, the new Jordanian Al Qaeda recruit path for Iraq).
Consider: if Zarqawi goes to Afghanistan, then he risks either competing operations with the Taliban/Osama Bin Laden, or else he gets close enough to Bin Laden to allow coordination but then risks the dual capture of both high level targets simultaneously.
So to me, Afghanistan would be low on his list of bugout spots. Bin Laden either has things covered there (to whatever feeble extent Al Qaeda can project power) or not...Zarqawi can't really be so arrogant as to think that he'd change that fact (especially at considerable risk to Al Qaeda via 2 high profile targets so close together). So going there adds no value for Al Qaeda...but risks much if both Zarqawi and Bin Laden are captured there.
So no. He didn't go to Afghanistan. Zarqawi went South. He'll do recruiting in Jordan and he'll be organizing in South Lebanon to hit Israel.
All of this talk about a civil war in Iraq is nonsense. All of this talk about the Arab Street being enraged against the U.S. is nonsense.
But...
If Al Qaeda hits Israel hard enough, it actually could unite a large faction of radical Muslims.
Al Qaeda bombing the Samarra Mosque in Iraq was penny-anny. It turned fence-sitting Iraqis against Al Qaeda as much as Al Qaeda's Jordan hotel bombings backfired in Amman.
Al Qaeda slaughtering 2,000 Jews in Tel Aviv would not be penny-anny. It would not backfire in the Islamic world.
Look at the data. The U.S. fatality figures in Iraq show clearly that Al Qaeda weakens in Iraq each day (96 U.S. fatalities in Iraq back in October and that has declined non-stop since then to 53 in February).
Tribe after tribe is hunting Zarqawi in Iraq...and Iraqi's blame Al Qaeda for blowing up their mosques, police recruitment centers, schools, hospitals, etc.
Al Qaeda has therefor lost Iraq. Al Qaeda has been slaughtered in Saudi Arabia. Al Qaeda lost Jordan with their hotel bombings.
Al Qaeda and the Taliban are impotent in Afghanistan. They've only managed one tourist attack in Egypt.
Thus, a large amount of Muslims know that Al Qaeda is desperate and that Al Qaeda has a large string of failures.
This means that Al Qaeda's leadership will want a grand act to give them a 2nd chance in the eyes of the Muslim world.
What else can they do that all Muslims will approve other than to hit Israel?!
It's obvious. I don't like it, but it's obvious.
So Zarqawi has gone South for this attack.
He's probably in Southern Lebanon. He *might* be in Jordan or the Gaza Strip, but my money is on the lawless southern section of Lebanon (certainly not Christian-run Beirut).
"Are these Sunnis the 'good insurgents'."
Many of the insurgents probably figured we had moved into the country to stay, no matter what we said otherwise. Don't forget they had 30 or more years of "the big lie." Then we dismissed the Army, and said we would deBathify. So they were unemployed and pi..ed.
Now that they have seen us actually encourage, and enable them to vote in elections, and also turned over a fair bit of action to the new Iraq army, they are probably beginning to have hope that we do plan to go home before 2100.
They are now seeing that their objectives (regaining their own country), and AlQueda's (destroying the great Satan) are not the same.
BTTT
Love it... Can you the "Art Of War" is in play here?
Liberals, Democrats are devestated at the news.......
Great post! Enjoyed the analysis...
What do you think of this, oh wise Anbar Province Dweller? ;-)
Who was it that said: "The enemy of my enemy is my friend"?
like your thinking, thats deep, go to the top of the class!
bttt
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