Council of militant groups reportedly replaces al-Zarqawi
By Liz Sly
The Chicago Tribune, 24 January 2006
BAGHDAD -- In a further sign of the rifts emerging within Iraq's insurgency, Jordanian-born militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has stepped aside as the head of a new council of radical groups in favor of an Iraqi, according to a posting on a Web site used by Al Qaeda and other insurgent groups.
The statement's authenticity could not be independently verified. It said Abdullah Rashid al-Baghdadi, "who is Iraqi," had taken over from al-Zarqawi as "emir" of the new Mujahedeen Shura, or Council, which groups six extremist organizations including Al Qaeda and whose creation was announced last week.
The formation of the council and the appointment of an Iraqi to lead it come at a time of deepening divisions within Iraq's insurgency over ways to respond to the new realities of post-election Iraq and how to prepare for the day when U.S. troops start going home.
Most notably, some Iraqi nationalist insurgent groups are turning against al-Zarqawi and his foreign Arab volunteers, whose spectacular suicide bombings have served the insurgency's goals well but whose Islamic extremism has come to be seen as a liability by rebels whose aim increasingly is to secure a role for Sunni Iraqis in the new political order.
A statement announcing the formation of the council a week ago, issued by al-Zarqawi's chief spokesman, explained that the council's purpose was to "unite the approach of the mujahedeen . . . in order to dismiss all the differences and disagreements and controversies," an acknowledgment of rifts that have opened within the insurgency in recent months.
Web site used by Al Qaeda
Though there was no way of independently verifying the information, the Web site is the main one used by Al Qaeda in Iraq to post news, claims of responsibility and videotapes of attacks. Since the council was formed, the claims of responsibility that previously were posted by Al Qaeda have been made in the name of the Mujahedeen Council.
On Friday, the site's administrator named al-Baghdadi as the leader of the council, which is composed of Al Qaeda in Iraq, an affiliated group called the Victorious Sect Brigade, and four lesser-known allied groups. Leading Iraqi nationalist groups such as Ansar al-Sunnah, the Islamic Army and the 20th Revolution Brigades, are not included.
A subsequent posting explained: "What Sheik Abu Musab did when giving up the title of Emir, this is a favor by the Emir of Slaughter to block the road to all those who say he is a foreigner." The Emir of Slaughter is an honorific used by extremists to refer to al-Zarqawi, America's most wanted man in Iraq with a $25 million bounty on his head.
"He [al-Zarqawi] must be really under pressure," said Mustafa al-Ani, director of the Center for Counterterrorism at the Dubai-based Gulf Research Center. "There's been a lot of talk since the election about divisions between Iraqi mujahedeen and Al Qaeda, and this is to prove that even the Arab mujahedeen are led by an Iraqi and not a foreigner."
Al Qaeda in Iraq also is looking ahead to the day when U.S. forces leave and is starting to realize it needs to form alliances and structures to further its dream of establishing a Taliban-style Islamic state in Iraq, said Jaafar al-Taie, a Jordan-based analyst who closely monitors the insurgency.
"For the first time, the U.S. is on the defensive and is about to withdraw, so they're restructuring," he said. "It's an attempt to expand the breadth of Al Qaeda politically and militarily. You give Al Qaeda an Iraqi face, you give it a different dimension."
There was no indication that al-Zarqawi's leadership of his own group, Al Qaeda in Iraq, is being challenged. The identity of al-Baghdadi, an apparent pseudonym signifying that he is from Baghdad, is not known, and it cannot be said with certainty that he even exists, al-Ani said.
The real question now is whether the new council marks the emergence of a joint leadership of Al Qaeda and its allies, in which al-Zarqawi's influence is diminished, or whether the naming of an Iraqi leader simply represents a propaganda effort to fend off accusations by other insurgents that Al Qaeda is a foreign organization.
Either way, it is clear that al-Zarqawi is feeling squeezed by the Iraqi insurgents whose goals are starting to diverge sharply from those of Al Qaeda in Iraq. Some insurgent groups have been reaching out to the U.S. and the Iraqi government with a view to launching negotiations to end their violent rebellion in return for concessions that would secure a role for the Sunni minority in an Iraq now dominated politically by Shiites and Kurds.
"For the Iraqi mujahedeen, it's not killing for the sake of killing but to put pressure on the political process, in order to secure their position," al-Ani said. "They had a common strategy with Al Qaeda to get rid of the Americans, but that's not the question of the future. Zarqawi has no interest in any political settlement."
In Ramadi, the capital of insurgent-infested Anbar province, Iraqi insurgent groups have fought sporadic clashes with Al Qaeda supporters in recent months, and local tribal leaders have been talking to the Americans with hopes of forging a common strategy against Al Qaeda.
U.S. aims to exploit tensions
The tensions have risen sharply since a suicide bombing blamed on Al Qaeda earlier this month targeted police recruits in the city. Most of the 56 people killed were local Sunnis responding to a call by tribal leaders to sign up for a government security force they previously had shunned, and there have since been tit-for-tat assassinations of leading figures on both sides.
Exploiting rifts between Iraqi Sunni insurgents, whom the U.S. military refers to as "rejectionists," and the Al Qaeda radicals is a central plank in the U.S. military's exit strategy. American officials point to the tensions in Ramadi as evidence that it is working.
"We've seen recently . . . indications that the locals in Ramadi are taking actions themselves against the terrorists and foreign fighters," Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch said at a media briefing last week.
But, he cautioned, Al Qaeda in Iraq remains a formidable force with the capacity to deliver the kind of devastating suicide attacks that have made al-Zarqawi Iraq's most wanted terrorist.
"Zarqawi and the terrorists and foreign fighters, to which we attribute all the suicide attacks, still has a significant capability to surge acts of violence," he said.
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Citation: Liz Sly. "Rifts deepen within Iraq's insurgency," The Chicago Tribune, 24 January 2006.
Original URL: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0601240004jan24,1,5792395.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed
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