NEW YORK, Aug 10 (AFP) - An Iraqi resistance group that calls itself the Army of Mohammed has 5,000 fighters and an organized central command, according to three guerrillas interviewed by Newsweek magazine.

The group does not support the return of ousted president Saddam Hussein, according to the interview. "We want to make a new government, without Saddam but in the same style," one of the fighters told Newsweek.

The group began as a gathering of tribal Iraqi army veterans angry at the US occupation of their country.

"We met in small cells at first, far from the cities, in farms, and we started talking," said one of the fighters, identified as Kadim Baghdadi, 34. "We took the decision that we must liberate the country."

The fighters communicate daily with their central command through couriers bearing handwritten notes, the fighters said.

According to a statement read by one of the fighters, identified as Mohammed al-Rawi, 40, US forces have taken over Iraq "under a false pretext, and without international authorization," they "kill our women and children and old men," and want to "bring the Jews to our holy land in order to control Iraq."

Four masked men identifying themselves as Army of Mohammed members appeared late Saturday in a videotape broadcast by Qatar's Al-Jazeera satellite news channel, warning they will turn Iraq "into a cemetery for the invaders and colonisers."

Q: How much of the resistance movement in Iraq is based around Saddam loyalists?

Throughout history, a successful guerrilla movement needs the support of the wider population, in other words sag houses, food, moral, technical and other forms of support...
These new emerging resistance are a far greater threat to the occupying powers, since unlike the Ba’athists they enjoy significant popular support (the basis for a successful guerrilla campaign) and they are tapping in to growing anti-Americanism, and what it appears to be growing Shia anger of the British. These harbour the potential for a genuine mass resistance to the occupying powers as the Ba’athist resistance declines.

...the implication is, of course, that this "Iraqi resistance" to the coalition authority has some sort of mass support among many Iraqis. An implication which is not born out by the facts. Polls (conducted in Baghdad, one of the toughest areas for coalition forces) show the vast majority of Iraqis want foreign troops to stay for an extended amount of time. All reports so far indicate the majority of Iraqis strongly oppose the attack on coalition troops and feel that they are counter-productive. The "resistance" does not seem to have growing support, this, of course, must be separated from support for some form of theocracy in Iraq which does have significant popular support.

Well, if the current Coalition authority inability to solve the electricity, sanitation, education, health etc, anger will grow. Videos have shown that after American soldiers are shot the Iraqi people around start cheering and celebrating!  A successful guerrilla resistance needs only a significant minority of people to passively/actively support the resistance for it to be successful. Already, the Sunni group is deeply alarmed by the moves towards greater power for the Shias, which the Americans are proposing. To suggest that the Sunni Muslim population, fearing for their privilege won’t start to actively support and sympathise with the resistance, is naïve.

I think the groups attacking Allied soldiers just want them to either leave or help set up their democracy.

Already, the Sunni group is deeply alarmed by the moves towards greater power for the Shias, which the Americans are proposing. To suggest that the Sunni Muslim population, fearing for their privilege won’t start to actively support and sympathise with the resistance, is naïve.

The reason the Iraqui police can't do anything is they don't have the power to do anything!

Even months after the fighting stopped for the most part, the Iraqui people don't have reliable electricity, sanitation, water...

Part of Democracy means SHARING the power. The Sunni are greedy power grabbers

The crime situation in Baghdad is also intolerable.  I've seen people claim that crime isn't our responsibility, but that's ridiculous.  The reason the Iraqui police can't do anything is they don't have the power to do anything!  As the occupying army, it is our responsibility to provide for the people of the country and we're failing miserably.  Even months after the fighting stopped for the most part, the Iraqui people don't have reliable electricity, sanitation, water, their infrastructure is in a shambles and violent crime and theft is at an all-time high.

"To Those Who Reject the US Presence in Iraq," by Ra'ad Al Hamadani, of the Al Etegah Newspaper, August 11th, 2003

"Many dislike the US presence.  For me, it's the opposite; perhaps many agree with me because I say that they have brought the favorable end of Saddam's regime.  Why do we ignore the truth?  Why did we not ask ourselves about the wishes to see the regime ended?  How many times did we say that we wanted anyone to end that, even the Jewish?  Here, Iraqis have become free and Iraq is for all, not for Saddam and his sons and followers.  The US is God's mercy for us.  Without their help, Saddam would continue to slight us and turn our houses into graves.  Can you imagine what would happen if they left?  Civil war would start between Shi'a and Shi'a, Shi'a and Sunni, Kurd and Kurd, Arab and Kurd.  But the dangerous issue is that Saddam is still free; he will gather his followers that have enough weapons and are looking for revenge.  It's not logical to believe that when Saddam fell, we would see a wonderful and quiet Iraq.  Iraqi people must pass through this difficult stage."

I'm currently in the Marine Reserves and have just recently returned from Iraq. Unless the situation on the ground has changed drastically since my unit returned(doubtful), the Iraqi resistance is made up of Baathist and Fedayeen hold-outs, as well as foreign jihadists. The problems have been occuring in the Sunni Triangle which includes parts of Baghdad. The Sunnis benefited under Saddam's rule and so this area has always been a hotbed of support for the Baathists. In fact after the end of major hostilities I never even heard a shot fired in anger. My unit, as well as the rest of the Marines in Iraq were operating in predominantly Shi'ite areas, people who were brutally oppressed by Saddam's regime. Generally the people were very friendly towards us. The only opposition was in the form of protest, and none of them were very large. The last month that I was in Iraq we weren't even wearing flak jackets.

If the accounts of the resistance given to the Herald in interviews in the past 10 days are accurate, US intelligence is way behind understanding that what is emerging in Iraq is a centrally controlled movement, driven as much by nationalism as the mosque, a movement that has left Saddam and the Baath Party behind and already is getting foreign funds for its bid to drive out the US army.

Toying with his beard, he describes a Sunni resistance that is a disciplined, religiously focused force. Asked where authority rests, he says: "It's with the sheiks in the mosques. Baath Party people and former members of the military are not allowed to be our leaders. Baathists are losers; they didn't succeed when they worked for the party.

"We now have a single, jihadist leadership group that operates nationally. Everything is done on instructions carried by messengers. There are 35 men in my cell and I'm a leader of three other cells. The number of foreigners who are coming to help us is increasing - Syrian, Palestinian, Saudi and Qatari.

But we also get weapons from outside Iraq. We allowed some of the fighters to appear on the Arab TV channels because we knew that would make wealthy Arabs send aid and encourage Arab mujahideen to join us. It was a very intelligent and effective operation.

"They didn't just send money. They send fighters and ammunition; and they give us good intelligence and ideas for dealing with the Americans

Secondly, surely the article shows that these aren't terrorists, they are fighting a foreign army and not civilians. Not only that they seem to enjoy popular support, meaning they are freedom-figheters/rebels not terrorists.

A terrorist a a freedom fighter who's your enemy, a freedom fighter is a terrorist who your friend.

You astound me goamerica! First of all, where did you get the idea that only Iran was funding the Islamist resistance movement? Iran is a Shia nation, why would they support the Sunni Islamists?

Why would we support Saddam Hussien int he 1980's even though he was a psycho even then??

U.S. culture is not Muslim culture. It doesn't take Ba'athists to resent and oppose the presence of Coalition forces, especially Americans.

Kneeling on prayer carpets in long rows under a blazing sun, worshipers chanted, ''no, no to America, yes, yes for Islam,'' as a cleric denounced the U.S.-led occupation. Hundreds of people spilled over into side streets littered with garbage and pools of raw sewage.

''America did not come here to liberate Iraq, as some misguided people think,'' said Sheik Abdul Hadi al Daraji. ``The United States does not seek the good will of Muslims and Arab people. They did not come here for the interests of Iraqi people, but for their own designs...

''What happened here a few days ago shows that America and the Jews have declared war against Islam,'' al Daraji said. ``We tell you and the whole world and America that the sons of Iraq will retaliate twice as hard against anyone who attacks us or our sacred symbols.''

Shiite Clerics urge resistance to U.S. occupation forces

''What happened here a few days ago shows that America and the Jews have declared war against Islam,'' al Daraji said. ``We tell you and the whole world and America that the sons of Iraq will retaliate twice as hard against anyone who attacks us or our sacred symbols.''

Think about it...if we were invaded by foreigners, no matter how bad things were under our own government, would American's pledge their allegiance to an invading hostile military force we didn't want and didn't provoke? I don't think anyone would. I think we would sooner band together and look towards the strongest leaders in our own communities...which are traditionally going to be religious leaders to fill the void. The religious leaders would likely reach out to each other sooner than they would the invading army in order to be a stronger force.

We need to set up a puppet government as quickly as possible, declare victory and go home.

We don't want to do it as quick as that because we want to make sure we are successful and that the government becomes a flourshing democracy that everyone can agree on and doesn't turn into an Islamic State within 2 years

But the iraqis have Clerics in their country that COULD well be influenced by Iran, thus causing violence to emerge. These people are currently angry because a BlackHawk helicopter got too close to some banner.

In any case a puppet government will not be acceptable to Iraqi's and will never last anyway. They will eventually end up with another dictator or people they have chosen that the US may or may not approve of. It's not a matter of IF but of WHEN.   

A popular Sunni Muslim cleric has provided grass-roots and financial support to a leading anti-American Shiite cleric, a rare example of cooperation across Iraq's sectarian divide that has alarmed U.S. officials for its potential to bolster festering resistance to the American occupation, senior U.S. and Iraqi officials say.

The ties mark one of the first signs of coordination between anti-occupation elements of the Sunni minority, the traditional rulers of the country, and its Shiite majority, seen by U.S. officials as the key to stability in postwar Iraq.

The extent of the cooperation remains unclear between Ahmed Kubeisi, a Sunni cleric from a prominent clan in western Iraq, and Moqtada Sadr, the 30-year-old son of a revered Shiite ayatollah assassinated in 1999. But ideologically and practically, it represents a convergence of interests between the two figures, who were left out of the Iraqi Governing Council named last month and, in their own communities, have emerged as influential if still minority voices of opposition to the four-month-old occupation.

There is a chance it will last. The odds are not good. You are correct Iraq will soon have another dictator. A democracy must have some respect for individual rights, I don't see this in the Arab world. Democracy cannot be imported from without. It has to grow from a seed.

This a sign of the growing pan-Islamic anti-Americanism growing throughout Iraq and is a promising grassroots opportunity for a moderate Islamic democracy against American hegemony. 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/artic...-2003Aug16.html

The growing Islamist resistance is increasingly popular and is grass-roots, not imported by the Evildoers of Tehran!  

How much of the resistance movement in Iraq is based around Saddam loyalists?

What about Afghanistan? Afghanistan is slowly but surely making it towards democracy. The only hurdles are the warlords and the remenents of the Taliban.

What about Afghanistan?
Afghanistan is slowly but surely making it towards democracy. The only hurdles are the warloards and the remnants of the Taliban.

The war is OVER in IRAQ..........Dubya said so.
Whats the problem mate????.
Regards....Alan

In an interview with the Armed Forces Radio and Television Service that was recorded on Thursday and made public on Monday, Mr. Bush emphasized that May 1 had marked not the end of combat but rather of "major military operations."

Before the war, they said Saddam Hussein – their favorite world leader behind Jacques Chirac – was not a threat to America's interests in the region, was not developing weapons of mass destruction, and did not harbor terrorists. Now that we've taken the country and are uncovering mass graves, canisters of poison gases, victims of Saddam's weapons of mass destruction and colonies of terrorists, liberals are claiming the war created it all

Ann Coulter, once again, hits the nail on the head. Read her take on the blame-game right here.

Passion, do you really read that crap? She can't go two words without blaming unnamed "liberals" for everything in the world, and you're talking about the "blame-game?" I've read some liberal writers who do the same thing, I find it incredibly idiotic.

I should also mention that your post is quite off-topic.

Liberals simply refuse to consider thoughts that would interfere with their lemming-like groupthink. They hold their hands over their ears like little children who don't want to listen to mother.

Before the war, they said Saddam Hussein – their favorite world leader behind Jacques Chirac – was not a threat to America's interests in the region, was not developing weapons of mass destruction, and did not harbor terrorists. Now that we've taken the country and are uncovering mass graves, canisters of poison gases, victims of Saddam's weapons of mass destruction and colonies of terrorists, liberals are claiming the war created it all.

These people are currently angry because a BlackHawk helicopter got too close to some banner.

Crew Purposely Felled Shiites' Banner, U.S. Commander Says
He asserts troops aboard helicopter used 'poor judgment' in incident that sparked rioting.

The top U.S. military commander in Iraq acknowledged Thursday for the first time that his forces intentionally knocked down a Shiite Muslim flag in the capital's Sadr City ghetto, an incident that triggered rioting and fueled anti-American sentiment among Iraq's majority Shiites. LA TIMES

US intelligence has dissected the makeup of the guerrilla groups lurking in Baghdad and points north in an area enclosed by Tikrit, Haditha, Fallujah and Baquba. They have come up with some alarming findings:

1. Since late June, Chechen terrorists have been coming to Iraq to join the anti-American offensive.

2. The intake of Arab fighters entering Iraq from Syria is beginning to outnumber the indigenous Iraqi guerrillas fighting in the northern Mosul-Haditha district and the central Ramadi-Fallujah region.

3. The commanders of the guerrilla campaign, Saddam Hussein or his henchmen, appear to are imparting Muslim fundamentalist characteristics to units fighting the Americans - both as camouflage and to foster greater cohesion. In at least one case, a group was lent a pan-Arab identity. The deposed ruler or his commanders are clearly giving careful thought to the ideological nature and makeup of their following. Therefore they may not be quite so pressured by the pursuit as believed. Their ability to strike simultaneously in different places also attests to military and intelligence capabilities.

The Chechen fighters arriving in Baghdad are not drawn from the ranks of foreign Muslims fighting the Russians in Chechnya but ethnic Chechens. They were assigned to duty in the Sunni Triangle of central Iraq by the Chechen rebels’ Saudi al Qaeda commander, Abu al-Walid, also known as Emir al-Walid, who succeeded al Khatib who died in a Russian ambush two years ago.

Not much is known about the new commander except that he comes from western Saudi Arabia and receives funds from Saudi Islamic relief organizations funneled through Balkan or Central Asian Islamic organizations.

The report notes that the Chechen insurgents reach Iraq through Syria.

The US intelligence force outlines five groups – all wings or allies of the Iraqi Baath party which are operating in different districts and under diverse banners:

Muhammad’s Army This group of Iraqi Baathists operates in the guise of Muslim fundamentalists. They are concentrated around Baghdad international airport and the cluster of military airfields in Habania and western Iraq, H-1, H-2 and H-3, armed with shoulder-launched Sam 7 anti-air missiles. In July, they tried to down a US fighter plane and a C-130 transport but missed both.

The Black Flags: This group, mostly Syrian Arabs from the Damascus region, is responsible for sabotaging oil installations and fields. DEBKA-Net-Weekly’s Islamic experts explain that the black flag was once the symbol of the Abbasid revolt against the Omayyad caliphs who ruled Iraq. Although Sunni Muslims, they posed and lived as practicing Shiites until their army overthrew the Caliph in the year 705 A.D., when they came out from their Shiite cover and reverted to the Sunni faith. The message conveyed by this symbol is that it is permitted for Saddam loyalists to assume any religious facade that will help them defeat the enemy.

Iraqi Nasserists: This group of Saddam loyalists pretends to accept the pan-Arab doctrine preached by the Egyptian dictator Gemal Abdul Nasser in the 1950s and 1960s, a doctrine totally rejected by the Iraqi Baath. This group’s turf lies between Samarra and Baquba.

The Wahhabis: The state religion of the Saudi kingdom was never able to pierce Saddam Hussein’s secular dominion in Iraq. Now the bar has been removed, the Wahhabis have taken up position in Falujjah and its environs. They are working together with some of the Chechens.

Al Awda’s Military Wing: Al Awda, meaning “The Return”, runs the most highly-trained, best armed and richly endowed guerrilla group made up of ex-officers sworn to serve Saddam Hussein to the death. Flush with funds, they go around Baghdad and the Sunni Triangle offering $500 in cash on the spot for any Iraqi prepared to join their operation against US forces.

The decision to kill Saddam Hussein’s two sons Uday and Qusay when they were surrounded in a villa in Mosul - instead of taking them alive - was made by high-ranking officials in Washington to meet the overarching goal of showing the Iraqi people that Saddam Hussein and his like were doomed to be eliminated root and branch from Iraq’s ruling system, never to return. Washington needed to hammer this message home to counteract the corrosive effect on Iraqis of the mounting guerrilla campaign on American troops and their failure to take out a single senior member of Saddam’s inner circle since invading the country in March.

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After the two sons’ deaths were confirmed, DEBKA-Net-Weekly published a world exclusive in its last issue of July 25 that, even now, the Saddam succession lives on in the person of a third, virtually unknown younger son called Al. Uday and Qusay had the same mother, Sajida. Ali’s mother is Samira Shahbandar, the daughter of an aristocratic Syrian-Iraqi family.

According to our sources, Samira was never married formally to Saddam although there are rumors of a secret marriage contract. She preferred to live apart from him in Syria so as to stay clear of Baghdad politics and the brutalities of the Saddam regime. But their relationship was strong and she often paid visits to Baghdad. In recent years, Samira is believed to have moved to Beirut, but their son Ali stayed in Syria, presumably under the custody of Saddam’s close advisers. His two half-brothers worked long and hard to keep Ali’s existence dark and unrecognized, but Saddam is fond of his youngest son and always protected him from his siblings’ rancor.

Just before the war, Ali dropped out of sight and has not been located so far by any intelligence agency. Until recently, US intelligence assumed the young boy had gone into hiding in a secret place prepared in advance by his father. Now, according to DEBKAfile and DEBKA-Net-Weekly’s sources, he is believed to have been brought to Iraq by Saddam several weeks before the war and kept beside him throughout the fighting. The son and father are most probably together in one of the presidential underground complexes between Tikrit and Samarra or Samarra East.

DEBKA-Net-Weekly’s intelligence sources report the strong possibility that Saddam Hussein will try and elevate his last surviving son to fill the dynastic gap left by the deaths of Uday and Qusay and Qusay’s 14-year old son Mustafa.

Ali’s presence in the presidential hideout is held by some intelligence sources as the reason for the two half-brothers’ unexplained emergence from hiding and exposure to danger in Mosul where they and Mustafa were finally killed by US troops last Tuesday, July 22. They may have fallen out with their father over the presence of the half-brother they hated and walked out to force Saddam to send him away.

DEBKAfile’s military sources report that finding Ali Hussein was the object of the US Task Force 20 raid on a house in the Mansour district of Baghdad Sunday, July 27 and sweeps by the 4th Infantry Division around Ouja on the outskirts of Tikrit since Wednesday July 23. Their mission is deemed important enough to bring General Richard Myers, top US armed forces commander, to Iraq to lead operations. Finding Saddam’s last surviving offspring appears to be the key to the capture of Saddam himself. Failure would boost Iraq’s deposed president hopes and encourage him to name Ali as his successor.