Al-Qaeda in Iraq
Encyclopedia
Al-Qaeda in Iraq is a popular name for the Iraq
i division of the international Salafi jihadi militant organization al-Qaeda
. It is recognized as a part of the greater Iraqi insurgency
.
The group was founded in 2003 and first led by the Jordan
ian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi
, who declared allegiance to Osama bin Laden
's al-Qaeda network in October 2004. It was initially operating under the name Jama'at al-Tawhid
wal-Jihad
; since 2004 its official name is Tanzim Qaidat al-Jihad fi Bilad al-Rafidayn (QJBR) ("Organization of Jihad
's Base in the Country of the Two Rivers
"). Foreign (non-Iraqi) fighters are widely thought to play a key role in its network.
and a combination of foreigners and local Islamist
sympathizers, largely Kurdish. Zarqawi was a Jordan
ian Salafi who had traveled to Afghanistan
to fight in the Soviet-Afghan War, but he arrived after the departure of the Soviet troops and soon returned to his homeland. He eventually returned to Afghanistan, running an Islamic militant training camp near Herat
. Originally, Zarqawi started the network with the intention of overthrowing the kingdom of Jordan, which he considered to be un-Islamic in the fundamentalist
sense, and for this purpose developed a large number of contacts and affiliates in several countries. His network may have been involved in the late 1999 plot to bomb the Millennium celebrations
in the United States and Jordan. Zarqawi's operatives were also responsible for the assassination of U.S. diplomat Laurence Foley
in Jordan in 2002.
Following the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan
, Zarqawi moved westward into Iraq, where he reportedly received medical treatment in Baghdad
for an injured leg. It is believed that he developed extensive ties in Iraq with Ansar al-Islam
("Partisans of Islam"), a Kurdish Islamist militant group based in the extreme northeast of the country. Allegedly, Ansar had ties to Iraqi Intelligence; Saddam Hussein
's motivation would have been to use Ansar as a surrogate force to repress the secular Kurds fighting for independence of Kurdistan. In January 2003, Ansar's founder Mullah Krekar
denied any connection with Saddam's regime. The consensus of intelligence officials has since concluded that there were no links whatsoever between Zarqawi and Saddam, and that Saddam viewed Ansar al-Islam "as a threat to the regime" and his intelligence officials were spying on the group. The Senate Report on Pre-war Intelligence on Iraq concluded in 2006, "Postwar information indicates that Saddam Hussein attempted, unsuccessfully, to locate and capture al-Zarqawi and that the regime did not have a relationship with, harbor, or turn a blind eye toward Zarqawi."
Following the 2003 U.S-led invasion of Iraq
, JTJ developed into an expanding militant network including some of the remnants of Ansar al-Islam and a growing number of foreign fighters, with the purpose of resisting the coalition occupation forces and their Iraqi allies. Many foreign fighters arriving in Iraq were inititally not associated with the group, but once in the country they became dependent on Zarqawi's local contacts. In May 2004, JTJ joined forces with an obscure Islamist militant group Salafiah al-Mujahidiah.
The stated goals of JTJ were to force a withdrawal of U.S-led forces from Iraq, to topple the Iraqi interim government, to assassinate collaborators with the occupation, to marginalize the Shia population and defeat its militias, and to subsequently establish a pure Islamic state
.
JTJ differed from the other early Iraqi insurgent groups considerably in its tactics. Rather than just using conventional weapons and guerrilla tactics
in ambushes against the U.S. and coalition forces, it has relied heavily on suicide bombings, often using car bomb
s and targeting a wide variety of groups but especially Iraqi Security Forces
and those facilitating the occupation. Groups of workers that have been targeted by JTJ include Iraqi interim officials, Iraqi Shia and Kurdish political and religious figures, the country's Shia Muslim civilians, foreign civilian contractors, and the United Nations
and humanitarian
workers. Zarqawi's militants have been also known to use a wide variety of other tactics, including targeted kidnapping
s, the planting of improvised explosive device
s, and mortar
attacks; beginning in late June 2004, the JTJ implemented urban guerilla-style attacks using rocket-propelled grenades and small arms
. They also gained a worldwide notoriety for beheading Iraqi and foreign hostage
s and distributing video recordings of these acts on the Internet
.
The group, whose spiritual advisor and deputy leader was the Palestinian
cleric Abu Anas al-Shami
, cited various texts from the Qur'an
and the Sunnah
(traditions) of Muhammad
that they perceived to be in support of their tactics. It quoted the prophet Muhammad, who said to the people of Mecca
when conquering them: "By the one in whose hand the soul of Muhammad is in, I came to you with slaughter" as narrated in the books of Hadith
(traditions), and quoted Muhammad as saying "Whoever slaughters a non-Muslim [at war with Islam, i.e. those perceived to be 'enemy occupiers'] sincerely for the sake of Allah
, Allah will make hellfire prohibited upon him." Other verses of the Qur'an call Muslims to fight invading non-Muslims and even behead them, such where Allah says in the Qur'an, "When your Lord revealed to the angels: I am with you, therefore make firm those who believe. I will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve. Therefore strike off their heads and strike off every fingertip of them."
JTJ claimed credit for a number of attacks targeting Iraqi forces and infrastructure
(including the October 2004 ambush and massacre of 49 unarmed Iraqi National Guard recruits) and for a series of attacks on humanitarian aid
agencies such as the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement
. It also conducted numerous attacks against U.S. military
personnel throughout 2004 and audacious suicide attacks inside the high-security Green Zone
perimeter in Baghdad. Zarqawi's men reputedly succeeded in assassinating several leading Iraqi politicians of the early post-Saddam era, and their bomb attack on the United Nations mission's headquarters in Iraq led the UN country team to relocate to Jordan and continue to work remotely.
The group either directly took responsibility or was blamed for many early Iraqi insurgent attacks, including the August 2003 series of high-profile bombings which killed 17 people at the Jordanian embassy in Baghdad
; 23 people, including the chief of the United Nations mission to Iraq Sérgio Vieira de Mello
, at the UN headquarters in Baghdad
; and at least 86 including Ayatollah
Sayed Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim in the Imam Ali Mosque bombing
in Najaf
; as well as the November truck bombing which killed 27 people, mostly Italian
paramilitary policemen, at the Italian base
in Nasiriyah
.
The 2004 attacks connected to the group included the series of bombings in Baghdad and Karbala
which killed some 178 people during the holy Day of Ashura
in March; the April failed plot to explode chemical bombs
in Amman
, Jordan (said to be financed by Zarqawi's network); a series of suicide boat bombings of the oil pumping stations in the Persian Gulf
in April, for which Zarqawi took responsibility in a statement published by the Muntada al-Ansar
Islamist web site; the May car bomb
assassination of Iraqi Governing Council
president Ezzedine Salim
at the entrance to the Green Zone in Baghdad; the June suicide car bombing in Baghdad
which killed 35 civilians; and the September car bomb which killed 47 police recruits and civilians on Haifa Street
in Baghdad.
Foreign civilian hostages abducted by the group in 2004 included American citizens Nick Berg
, Eugene Armstrong and Jack Hensley
, Turkish
citizens Durmus Kumdereli, Aytullah Gezmen and Murat Yuce
, South Korea
n citizen Kim Sun-il
, Bulgarian citizens Georgi Lazov and Ivaylo Kepov, and a British
citizen Kenneth Bigley
. Most of them were beheaded using knives. Al-Zarqawi personally beheaded Berg and Armstrong, but Yuce was shot dead by al-Masri and Gezmen was released after "repenting".
, al-Zarqawi outlined a four-stage plan to expand the Iraq War, which included expelling U.S. forces
from Iraq, establishing an Islam
ic authority (caliphate
), spreading the conflict to Iraq's secular neighbors, and engaging in the Arab-Israeli conflict. The affiliated groups were linked to regional attacks outside Iraq consistent with their stated plan, such as the Sharm al-Sheikh bombings
in Egypt
which killed some 88 people, including many foreign tourists.
In January 2006, AQI created an umbrella organization
, the Mujahideen Shura Council (MSC), in an attempt to unify Sunni
insurgents in Iraq. Its efforts to recruit Iraqi Sunni nationalists
and secular groups were undermined by its violent tactics against civilians and its extreme Islamic fundamentalist
doctrine. Because of these impediments, the attempt was largely unsuccessful.
AQI formerly attributed its attacks to the MSC until mid-October 2006, when Abu Ayyub al-Masri
declared the self-styled Islamic State of Iraq
(ISI), another front which included the Shura Council factions. The AQI now attributes its attacks to the ISI, and claims it is answering to the supreme emir
(leader) of the organization, Abu Abdullah al-Rashid al-Baghdadi
. According to a study compiled by U.S. intelligence agencies, the ISI have plans to seize power and turn the country into a Sunni Islamic state
.
estimated that AQI’s core membership was "more than 1,000." (These figures do not include the other six AQI-led Salafi groups organized in the Islamic State of Iraq.) The group is said to be suffering high manpower losses (including from its many "martyrdom" operations), but for a long time this appeared to have little effect on its strength and capabilities, implying a constant flow of volunteers from Iraq and abroad.
In 2007 some observers and scholars suggested that the threat posed by AQI was being exaggerated and a "heavy focus on Al-Qaeda obscures a much more complicated situation on the ground." According to both the July 2007 National Intelligence Estimate
and the Defense Intelligence Agency
reports, AQI accounted for 15 percent of attacks in Iraq. However, the Congressional Research Service
noted in its September 2007 report that attacks from al-Qaeda are less than two percent of the violence in Iraq and criticized the Bush administration
’s statistics, noting that its false reporting of insurgency attacks as AQI attacks has increased since the surge
operations began in 2007. In March 2007, the U.S.-sponsored Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty analyzed AQI attacks for that month and concluded the group had taken credit for 43 out of 439 attacks on Iraqi security forces and Shiite militias, and 17 out of 357 attacks on U.S. troops.
According to the 2006 U.S. Government report, this group is most clearly associated with foreign Jihadi cells operating in Iraq and has specifically targeted international forces and Iraqi citizens; most of AQI's operatives were not Iraqi
, but were coming through a series of safe houses, the largest of which was on the Iraq-Syria
n border. AQI's operations are predominately Iraq-based, but the United States Department of State
alleges that the group maintains an extensive logistical
network throughout the Middle East
, North Africa
, Iran
, South Asia
, and Europe
. In a June 2008 CNN
special report, al-Qaeda in Iraq was called "a well-oiled organization (...) almost as pedantically bureaucratic as was Saddam Hussein's Ba'ath party", collecting new execution videos long after they stopped publicising them, and having a network of spies even in the U.S. military bases. According to the report, Iraqis (many of them former members of Hussein's secret services) have now effectively run al-Qaeda in Iraq, with "foreign fighters' roles seem mostly relegated to the cannon fodder of suicide attacks"; however, the organization's top leadership was still dominated by non-Iraqis.
's al-Qaeda network in a letter in October 2004. That same month, the group, now popularly referred to as "Al-Qaeda in Iraq", kidnapped and murdered the Japanese
citizen Shosei Koda
. In November, al-Zarqawi's network was the main target of the U.S. Operation Phantom Fury in Fallujah
, but its leadership managed to escape the American siege and subsequent storming of the city. In December, in two of its many sectarian attacks, al-Qaeda bombed a Shi'ite funeral procession in Najaf
and the main bus station in nearby Karbala
, killing at least 60 in the holy cities of Shia Islam. The group also reportedly took responsibility for the 30 September 2004 Baghdad bombing
which killed 41 people, mostly children.
In 2005, AQI largely focused on executing high-profile and coordinated suicide attack
s, claiming responsibility for numerous attacks which were primarily aimed at Iraqi civilians. The group launched attacks against voters during the Iraqi legislative election
in January, a combined suicide and conventional attack
on the Abu Ghraib prison
in April, and the coordinated suicide attacks outside the Sheraton Ishtar
and Palestine Hotel
in Baghdad in October. In July, al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for the kidnapping and execution of Ihab Al-Sherif
, Egypt's envoy to Iraq. A July 2005 three-day series of suicide attacks, including the Musayyib marketplace bombing
, left at least 150 people dead. Al-Zarqawi claimed responsibility for the September single-day series of more than a dozen bombings in Baghdad, including a September 14 bomb attack
, which killed about 160 people (mostly unemployed Shi'ite workers). They claimed responsibility for series of mosque bombings
which killed at least 74 people the same month in Khanaqin
.
The attacks blamed on or claimed by al-Qaeda in Iraq continued to increase in 2006 (see also the list of major insurgent attacks in Iraq). In one of the incidents, two U.S. soldiers (Thomas Lowell Tucker
and Kristian Menchaca
) were captured, tortured and beheaded by the ISI; in another, four Russian embassy officials were abducted and subsequently executed. Iraq's al-Qaeda and its umbrella groups were blamed for multiple attacks targeting the country's Shia Muslim population, some of which AQI claimed responsibility for. The U.S. claimed the group was at least one of the forces behind the wave of chlorine bombings in Iraq
which affected hundreds of people (albeit with few fatalities) through the series of crude chemical warfare
attacks between late 2006 and mid-2007. During 2006, several key members of the AQI were killed or captured by American and allied forces; this included al-Zarqawi himself, killed on June 7, 2006, his spiritual adviser Sheik Abd-Al-Rahman
, and the alleged "number two" deputy leader, Hamid Juma Faris Jouri al-Saeedi
. The group's leadership was then assumed by the man called Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, who was really the Egyptian militant Abu Ayyub al-Masri
.
The high-profile attacks linked to the group continued through early 2007, as the AQI-led Islamic State claimed responsibility for attacks such as the March assassination attempt on Sunni Deputy Prime Minister of Iraq
Salam al-Zaubai
, the April Iraqi Parliament bombing
, and the May capture and subsequent execution of three American soldiers
. Also in May, ISI leader al-Baghdadi was declared to have been killed in Baghdad, but his death was later denied by the insurgents (later, al-Baghdadi was even declared by the U.S. to be non-existent). There were conflicting reports regarding the fate of al-Masri. From March to August, coalition forces fought the Battle of Baqubah
as part of the largely successful attempts to wrest the Diyala Governorate from AQI-aligned forces. Through 2007, the majority of the suicide bombings targeting civilians in Iraq were routinely identified by the military and government sources as being the responsibility of al-Qaeda and its associated groups, even when there was no claim of responsibility (as was in the case of the 2007 Yazidi communities bombings
, which killed some 800 people in the deadliest terrorist attack in Iraq to date).
By late 2007, violent and indiscriminate attacks directed by AQI against Iraqi civilians had severely damaged their image and caused the loss of support among the population, isolating the group. In a major blow to AQI, many former Sunni militants that previously fought along with the group started to work with the American forces (see also below). The U.S. troop surge supplied the military with more manpower for operations targeting the group, resulting in dozens of high-level AQI members being captured or killed. Al-Qaeda seemed to have lost its foothold in Iraq and appeared to be severely crippled. Accordingly, the bounty issued for al-Masri was eventually cut from $5 million down to $100,000 in April 2008.
As of 2008, a series of U.S. and Iraqi offensives managed to drive out the AQI-aligned insurgents from their former safe havens such as Diyala
and Al Anbar Governorates and the embattled capital of Baghdad to the area of the northern city of Mosul
, the latest of the Iraq War's major battlegrounds. The struggle for control of Ninawa Governorate
(the Ninawa campaign
) was launched in January 2008 by U.S. and Iraqi forces as part of the large-scale Operation Phantom Phoenix
aimed at combating Al-Qaeda activity in and around Mosul, as well as finishing off the network's remnants in central Iraq that escaped Operation Phantom Thunder
in 2007. In 2008, Al-Qaeda bombed the Baghdad's pet market in February
and a shopping centre in March
, killing at least 98 and 68 people, respectively.
Al-Qaeda in Iraq has long raised money through various activities like kidnapping for ransom
, car theft (sometimes killing drivers in the process), and hijacking fuel trucks, that would bring them tens of millions of dollars. According to an April 2007 statement by their Islamic Army in Iraq
rivals, AQI was demanding jizya
tax and killing members of wealthy families when not being paid. According to both U.S. and Iraqi sources in May 2008, the Islamic State of Iraq has been stepping up its racketeering
campaigns as their strictly militant capabilities were on the wane, with especially lucrative activity said to be coming from oil rackets centered on the industrial city of Bayji. According to U.S. military intelligence sources, in 2008 the group resembled a "Mafia
-esque criminal gang".
and greater chaos in the country. Al-Zarqawi purportedly declared an all-out war on Shiites while claiming responsibility for the Shiite mosque bombings. The same month, a letter allegedly written by al-Zawahiri (later rejected as a "fake" by AQI) appeared to question the insurgents' tactic of indiscriminately attacking Shiites in Iraq. In a December 2007 video, al-Zawahiri defended the Islamic State in Iraq, but distanced himself from the crimes against civilians committed by "hypocrites and traitors existing among the ranks".
U.S. and Iraqi officials accused AQI of trying to slide Iraq into a full-scale civil war between Iraq's majority Shiites and minority Sunni Arabs with an orchestrated campaign of civilian massacres and a number of provocative attacks against high-profile religious targets. With attacks such as the 2003 Imam Ali Mosque
bombing, the 2004 Day of Ashura and Karbala and Najaf bombings, the 2006 first al-Askari Mosque bombing in Samarra
and the deadly single-day series of bombings in which at least 215 people were killed
in Baghdad's Shiite district of Sadr City
, and the second al-Askari bombing
in 2007, they provoked Shiite militias to unleash a wave of retaliatory attacks, resulting in a plague of death squad
-style killings and spiraling further sectarian violence which escalated in 2006 and brought Iraq to the brink of violent anarchy
in 2007. In 2008, sectarian bombings blamed on al-Qaeda killed at least 42 people
at the Imam Husayn Shrine
in Karbala in March and at least 51 people
at a bus stop in Baghdad in June.
, but failed to do so (in 2006, a Jordan
ian court sentenced Zarqawi in absentia
and two of his associates to death for their involvement in the plot). AQI increased its presence outside Iraq by claiming credit for three attacks in 2005. In the most deadly of such attacks, suicide bombs killed 60 people in Amman
, Jordan, on November 9, 2005. They claimed responsibility for the rocket attacks that narrowly missed the USS Kearsarge
and the USS Ashland
in Jordan, and which also targeted the city of Eilat in Israel
, and also for the firing of several rockets into Israel from Lebanon
in December.
The Lebanese-Palestinian militant group Fatah al-Islam
, which was defeated by Lebanese government forces during the 2007 Lebanon conflict
, was linked to AQI and led by Zarqawi's former companion who had fought alongside him in Iraq. The group may have been linked with the little-known group called "Tawhid and Jihad in Syria
", and may have influenced the extremist Palestinian group called "Tawhid and Jihad Brigades" (better known as Army of Islam
) in Gaza
.
(IAI), began to speak of their dissatisfaction with al-Qaeda and its tactics, openly criticizing the foreign fighters for their deliberate targeting of Iraqi civilians. In September 2006, thirty Anbar tribes formed their own local alliance called the Anbar Salvation Council
(ASC), directed specifically at countering al-Qaeda-allied terrorist forces in the province, openly siding with the government and the U.S. troops.
By the beginning of 2007, Sunni tribes and nationalist insurgents had begun battling with their former allies in AQI in order to retake control of their communities. In early 2007, forces allied to Al-Qaeda in Iraq committed a series of attacks against Sunnis critical of the group, including the February 2007 attack in which scores of people were killed when a truck bomb exploded near a Sunni mosque in Fallujah
. Al-Qaeda supposedly played a role in the assassination of the leader of the Anbar-based insurgent group 1920 Revolution Brigade
, the military wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement. In April 2007, the IAI spokesman accused the ISI of killing at least 30 members of the Islamic Army, as well as members of the Jamaat Ansar al-Sunna and Mujahideen Army
insurgent groups, and called on Osama bin Laden to personally intervene to rein in Al-Qaeda in Iraq. The following month, the government stated that AQI leader al-Masri was killed by ASC fighters. Four days later, AQI released an audio tape in which a man claiming to be al-Masri warned Sunnis not to take part in the political process (later in May, the U.S. forces announced the release of dozens of Iraqis who were tortured by AQI as a part of the group's intimidation campaign), but also said that reports of internal fighting between Sunni militia groups were "lies and fabrications".
By June 2007, the growing hostility between foreign-influenced religious fanatics and Sunni nationalists led to open gun battles between the groups in Baghdad. The Islamic Army soon reached a ceasefire agreement with AQI, but refused to sign on to the ISI. There were reports that Hamas of Iraq
insurgents were involved in assisting U.S. troops in their Diyala Governorate operations against Al-Qaeda in August 2007. In September 2007, AQI claimed responsibility for the assassination of three people including the prominent Sunni sheikh
Abdul Sattar Abu Risha
, leader of the Anbar "Awakening council"
. That same month, a suicide attack on a mosque in the city of Baqubah
killed 28 people, including members of Hamas of Iraq and the 1920 Revolution Brigade, during a meeting at the mosque between tribal and guerilla leaders and the police. Meanwhile, the U.S. military began arming moderate insurgent factions when they promised to fight Al-Qaeda in Iraq instead of the Americans.
By December 2007, the strength of the "Awakening" movement irregulars (also called "Concerned Local Citizens" and "Sons of Iraq") was estimated at 65,000–80,000 fighters. Many of them were former insurgents (including alienated former AQI supporters), now being armed and paid by the Americans specifically to combat al-Qaeda's presence in Iraq. As of July 2007, this highly controversial strategy proved to be effective in helping to secure the Sunni districts of Baghdad and the other hotspots of central Iraq and to rout out the al-Qaeda-aligned militants.
in August and 155 at the Ministry of Justice and Ministry of Municipalities and Public Works
in September; these were the deadliest attacks directed at the new government in more than six years of war. These attacks represent a shift from the group's previous efforts to incite sectarian violence, although a series of suicide attacks
in April targeted mostly Iranian Shia pilgrims, killing 76, and in June a mosque bombing in Taza
killed at least 73 Shi'ites from the Turkmen
ethnic minority.
According to the commander of the U.S. forces in Iraq, General Ray Odierno, AQI "has transformed significantly in the last two years. What once was dominated by foreign individuals has now become more and more dominated by Iraqi citizens." Odierno's comments reinforce accusations by the government of Nuri al-Maliki that al-Qaeda and ex-Ba'athists were working together to undermine improved security and sabotage the planned Iraqi parliamentary elections in 2010. On April 18, 2010, Abu Ayyub al-Masri and Abu Abdullah al-Rashid al-Baghdadi were both killed in a joint U.S.-Iraqi raid near Tikrit
. As of June 2010, 80% of the group's 42 leaders, including recruiters and fincanciers, have been killed or captured with only eight remaining at large, according to Odierno. He said they are cut off from their leaders in Pakistan
, and improved intelligence allowed for the successful mission in April that led to the killing of the two AQI top commanders; in addition, the number of attacks and casualty figures in the first five months of 2010 have been the lowest yet since 2003. In February 2011, Iraqi forces reported the death of Al-Nasser Lideen Allah Abu Suleiman, the "military leader" of al-Qaeda in Iraq who also served as the Islamic State of Iraq's "War Minister", killed in the Al Anbar town of Hīt
. In May 2011, the Islamic State's leader and "emir of Baghdad" Huthaifa al-Batawi
, captured during the crackdown after the 2010 Baghdad church attack
in which 68 people died, was killed during an attempted prison break after having killed an Iraqi general and several others.
The group is currently led by Abu Dua
, who was declared a Specially Designated Global Terrorist
on 4 October 2011 by the US State Department
with an announced reward of $10 million for information leading to his capture or death.
Other personnel
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
i division of the international Salafi jihadi militant organization al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda is a global broad-based militant Islamist terrorist organization founded by Osama bin Laden sometime between August 1988 and late 1989. It operates as a network comprising both a multinational, stateless army and a radical Sunni Muslim movement calling for global Jihad...
. It is recognized as a part of the greater Iraqi insurgency
Iraqi insurgency
The Iraqi Resistance is composed of a diverse mix of militias, foreign fighters, all-Iraqi units or mixtures opposing the United States-led multinational force in Iraq and the post-2003 Iraqi government...
.
The group was founded in 2003 and first led by the Jordan
Jordan
Jordan , officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan , Al-Mamlaka al-Urduniyya al-Hashemiyya) is a kingdom on the East Bank of the River Jordan. The country borders Saudi Arabia to the east and south-east, Iraq to the north-east, Syria to the north and the West Bank and Israel to the west, sharing...
ian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi ; October 30, 1966 – June 7, 2006), born Ahmad Fadeel al-Nazal al-Khalayleh was a Jordanian militant Islamist who ran a paramilitary training camp in Afghanistan...
, who declared allegiance to Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was the founder of the militant Islamist organization Al-Qaeda, the jihadist organization responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States and numerous other mass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets...
's al-Qaeda network in October 2004. It was initially operating under the name Jama'at al-Tawhid
Tawhid
Tawhid is the concept of monotheism in Islam. It is the religion's most fundamental concept and holds God is one and unique ....
wal-Jihad
Jihad
Jihad , an Islamic term, is a religious duty of Muslims. In Arabic, the word jihād translates as a noun meaning "struggle". Jihad appears 41 times in the Quran and frequently in the idiomatic expression "striving in the way of God ". A person engaged in jihad is called a mujahid; the plural is...
; since 2004 its official name is Tanzim Qaidat al-Jihad fi Bilad al-Rafidayn (QJBR) ("Organization of Jihad
Jihad
Jihad , an Islamic term, is a religious duty of Muslims. In Arabic, the word jihād translates as a noun meaning "struggle". Jihad appears 41 times in the Quran and frequently in the idiomatic expression "striving in the way of God ". A person engaged in jihad is called a mujahid; the plural is...
's Base in the Country of the Two Rivers
Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia is a toponym for the area of the Tigris–Euphrates river system, largely corresponding to modern-day Iraq, northeastern Syria, southeastern Turkey and southwestern Iran.Widely considered to be the cradle of civilization, Bronze Age Mesopotamia included Sumer and the...
"). Foreign (non-Iraqi) fighters are widely thought to play a key role in its network.
Origins
Jama'at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad, often abbreviated to "JTJ" or shortened to Tawhid and Jihad, Tawhid wal-Jihad and sometimes Tawhid al-Jihad (or just Al Tawhid or Tawhid), was started by Abu Musab al-ZarqawiAbu Musab al-Zarqawi
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi ; October 30, 1966 – June 7, 2006), born Ahmad Fadeel al-Nazal al-Khalayleh was a Jordanian militant Islamist who ran a paramilitary training camp in Afghanistan...
and a combination of foreigners and local Islamist
Islamism
Islamism also , lit., "Political Islam" is set of ideologies holding that Islam is not only a religion but also a political system. Islamism is a controversial term, and definitions of it sometimes vary...
sympathizers, largely Kurdish. Zarqawi was a Jordan
Jordan
Jordan , officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan , Al-Mamlaka al-Urduniyya al-Hashemiyya) is a kingdom on the East Bank of the River Jordan. The country borders Saudi Arabia to the east and south-east, Iraq to the north-east, Syria to the north and the West Bank and Israel to the west, sharing...
ian Salafi who had traveled to Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
to fight in the Soviet-Afghan War, but he arrived after the departure of the Soviet troops and soon returned to his homeland. He eventually returned to Afghanistan, running an Islamic militant training camp near Herat
Herat
Herāt is the capital of Herat province in Afghanistan. It is the third largest city of Afghanistan, with a population of about 397,456 as of 2006. It is situated in the valley of the Hari River, which flows from the mountains of central Afghanistan to the Karakum Desert in Turkmenistan...
. Originally, Zarqawi started the network with the intention of overthrowing the kingdom of Jordan, which he considered to be un-Islamic in the fundamentalist
Fundamentalism
Fundamentalism is strict adherence to specific theological doctrines usually understood as a reaction against Modernist theology. The term "fundamentalism" was originally coined by its supporters to describe a specific package of theological beliefs that developed into a movement within the...
sense, and for this purpose developed a large number of contacts and affiliates in several countries. His network may have been involved in the late 1999 plot to bomb the Millennium celebrations
2000 millennium attack plots
The Year 2000 attack plots were terrorist attacks planned to occur on or near January 1, 2000: the bombing of four sites in Jordan, the bombing of Los Angeles International Airport , and the bombing of the USS The Sullivans. The first two plots were foiled by law enforcement agencies; the third was...
in the United States and Jordan. Zarqawi's operatives were also responsible for the assassination of U.S. diplomat Laurence Foley
Laurence Foley
Laurence Michael Foley, Sr. was an American diplomat assassinated outside his home in Amman, Jordan....
in Jordan in 2002.
Following the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan
War in Afghanistan (2001–present)
The War in Afghanistan began on October 7, 2001, as the armed forces of the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Australia, and the Afghan United Front launched Operation Enduring Freedom...
, Zarqawi moved westward into Iraq, where he reportedly received medical treatment in Baghdad
Baghdad
Baghdad is the capital of Iraq, as well as the coterminous Baghdad Governorate. The population of Baghdad in 2011 is approximately 7,216,040...
for an injured leg. It is believed that he developed extensive ties in Iraq with Ansar al-Islam
Ansar al-Islam
Ansar al-Islam is a Sunni Islamist group of Iraqis, promoting a radical interpretation of Islam, close to the official Saudi ideology of Wahhabism with strict application of Sharia. The group was formed in the northern provinces of Iraq near the Iranian border, and previously had established...
("Partisans of Islam"), a Kurdish Islamist militant group based in the extreme northeast of the country. Allegedly, Ansar had ties to Iraqi Intelligence; Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was the fifth President of Iraq, serving in this capacity from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003...
's motivation would have been to use Ansar as a surrogate force to repress the secular Kurds fighting for independence of Kurdistan. In January 2003, Ansar's founder Mullah Krekar
Mullah Krekar
Mullah Krekar , is a Kurdish Sunni Islamist terrorist who came to Norway as a refugee from northern Iraq in 1991. His wife and four children have Norwegian citizenship, but not Krekar himself. He speaks Kurdish, Arabic, Norwegian and English...
denied any connection with Saddam's regime. The consensus of intelligence officials has since concluded that there were no links whatsoever between Zarqawi and Saddam, and that Saddam viewed Ansar al-Islam "as a threat to the regime" and his intelligence officials were spying on the group. The Senate Report on Pre-war Intelligence on Iraq concluded in 2006, "Postwar information indicates that Saddam Hussein attempted, unsuccessfully, to locate and capture al-Zarqawi and that the regime did not have a relationship with, harbor, or turn a blind eye toward Zarqawi."
Following the 2003 U.S-led invasion of Iraq
2003 invasion of Iraq
The 2003 invasion of Iraq , was the start of the conflict known as the Iraq War, or Operation Iraqi Freedom, in which a combined force of troops from the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Poland invaded Iraq and toppled the regime of Saddam Hussein in 21 days of major combat operations...
, JTJ developed into an expanding militant network including some of the remnants of Ansar al-Islam and a growing number of foreign fighters, with the purpose of resisting the coalition occupation forces and their Iraqi allies. Many foreign fighters arriving in Iraq were inititally not associated with the group, but once in the country they became dependent on Zarqawi's local contacts. In May 2004, JTJ joined forces with an obscure Islamist militant group Salafiah al-Mujahidiah.
Goals and tactics
Islamic State
An Islamic state is a type of government, in which the primary basis for government is Islamic religious law...
.
JTJ differed from the other early Iraqi insurgent groups considerably in its tactics. Rather than just using conventional weapons and guerrilla tactics
Guerrilla warfare
Guerrilla warfare is a form of irregular warfare and refers to conflicts in which a small group of combatants including, but not limited to, armed civilians use military tactics, such as ambushes, sabotage, raids, the element of surprise, and extraordinary mobility to harass a larger and...
in ambushes against the U.S. and coalition forces, it has relied heavily on suicide bombings, often using car bomb
Car bomb
A car bomb, or truck bomb also known as a Vehicle Borne Improvised Explosive Device , is an improvised explosive device placed in a car or other vehicle and then detonated. It is commonly used as a weapon of assassination, terrorism, or guerrilla warfare, to kill the occupants of the vehicle,...
s and targeting a wide variety of groups but especially Iraqi Security Forces
Iraqi Security Forces
The Iraqi Armed Forces are the military forces of the Government of Iraq. They consist of the Iraqi Army, the Iraqi Air Force, and the Iraqi Navy....
and those facilitating the occupation. Groups of workers that have been targeted by JTJ include Iraqi interim officials, Iraqi Shia and Kurdish political and religious figures, the country's Shia Muslim civilians, foreign civilian contractors, and the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
and humanitarian
Humanitarianism
In its most general form, humanitarianism is an ethic of kindness, benevolence and sympathy extended universally and impartially to all human beings. Humanitarianism has been an evolving concept historically but universality is a common element in its evolution...
workers. Zarqawi's militants have been also known to use a wide variety of other tactics, including targeted kidnapping
Kidnapping
In criminal law, kidnapping is the taking away or transportation of a person against that person's will, usually to hold the person in false imprisonment, a confinement without legal authority...
s, the planting of improvised explosive device
Improvised explosive device
An improvised explosive device , also known as a roadside bomb, is a homemade bomb constructed and deployed in ways other than in conventional military action...
s, and mortar
Mortar (weapon)
A mortar is an indirect fire weapon that fires explosive projectiles known as bombs at low velocities, short ranges, and high-arcing ballistic trajectories. It is typically muzzle-loading and has a barrel length less than 15 times its caliber....
attacks; beginning in late June 2004, the JTJ implemented urban guerilla-style attacks using rocket-propelled grenades and small arms
Small arms
Small arms is a term of art used by armed forces to denote infantry weapons an individual soldier may carry. The description is usually limited to revolvers, pistols, submachine guns, carbines, assault rifles, battle rifles, multiple barrel firearms, sniper rifles, squad automatic weapons, light...
. They also gained a worldwide notoriety for beheading Iraqi and foreign hostage
Hostage
A hostage is a person or entity which is held by a captor. The original definition meant that this was handed over by one of two belligerent parties to the other or seized as security for the carrying out of an agreement, or as a preventive measure against certain acts of war...
s and distributing video recordings of these acts on the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
.
The group, whose spiritual advisor and deputy leader was the Palestinian
Palestinian people
The Palestinian people, also referred to as Palestinians or Palestinian Arabs , are an Arabic-speaking people with origins in Palestine. Despite various wars and exoduses, roughly one third of the world's Palestinian population continues to reside in the area encompassing the West Bank, the Gaza...
cleric Abu Anas al-Shami
Abu Anas al-Shami
Abu Anas al-Shami was known as Omar Yusef Juma'a prior to joining Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's Jama'at al-Tawhid wal Jihad group in Iraq.Abu Anas Al Shami was a Palestinian cleric, teacher, writer, and jihadist born in Kuwait...
, cited various texts from the Qur'an
Qur'an
The Quran , also transliterated Qur'an, Koran, Alcoran, Qur’ān, Coran, Kuran, and al-Qur’ān, is the central religious text of Islam, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God . It is regarded widely as the finest piece of literature in the Arabic language...
and the Sunnah
Sunnah
The word literally means a clear, well trodden, busy and plain surfaced road. In the discussion of the sources of religion, Sunnah denotes the practice of Prophet Muhammad that he taught and practically instituted as a teacher of the sharī‘ah and the best exemplar...
(traditions) of Muhammad
Muhammad
Muhammad |ligature]] at U+FDF4 ;Arabic pronunciation varies regionally; the first vowel ranges from ~~; the second and the last vowel: ~~~. There are dialects which have no stress. In Egypt, it is pronounced not in religious contexts...
that they perceived to be in support of their tactics. It quoted the prophet Muhammad, who said to the people of Mecca
Mecca
Mecca is a city in the Hijaz and the capital of Makkah province in Saudi Arabia. The city is located inland from Jeddah in a narrow valley at a height of above sea level...
when conquering them: "By the one in whose hand the soul of Muhammad is in, I came to you with slaughter" as narrated in the books of Hadith
Hadith
The term Hadīth is used to denote a saying or an act or tacit approval or criticism ascribed either validly or invalidly to the Islamic prophet Muhammad....
(traditions), and quoted Muhammad as saying "Whoever slaughters a non-Muslim [at war with Islam, i.e. those perceived to be 'enemy occupiers'] sincerely for the sake of Allah
Allah
Allah is a word for God used in the context of Islam. In Arabic, the word means simply "God". It is used primarily by Muslims and Bahá'ís, and often, albeit not exclusively, used by Arabic-speaking Eastern Catholic Christians, Maltese Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox Christians, Mizrahi Jews and...
, Allah will make hellfire prohibited upon him." Other verses of the Qur'an call Muslims to fight invading non-Muslims and even behead them, such where Allah says in the Qur'an, "When your Lord revealed to the angels: I am with you, therefore make firm those who believe. I will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve. Therefore strike off their heads and strike off every fingertip of them."
Activities
Infrastructure
Infrastructure is basic physical and organizational structures needed for the operation of a society or enterprise, or the services and facilities necessary for an economy to function...
(including the October 2004 ambush and massacre of 49 unarmed Iraqi National Guard recruits) and for a series of attacks on humanitarian aid
Humanitarian aid
Humanitarian aid is material or logistical assistance provided for humanitarian purposes, typically in response to humanitarian crises including natural disaster and man-made disaster. The primary objective of humanitarian aid is to save lives, alleviate suffering, and maintain human dignity...
agencies such as the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement
International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement
The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is an international humanitarian movement with approximately 97 million volunteers, members and staff worldwide which was founded to protect human life and health, to ensure respect for all human beings, and to prevent and alleviate human...
. It also conducted numerous attacks against U.S. military
United States armed forces
The United States Armed Forces are the military forces of the United States. They consist of the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, and Coast Guard.The United States has a strong tradition of civilian control of the military...
personnel throughout 2004 and audacious suicide attacks inside the high-security Green Zone
Green Zone
The Green Zone is the most common name for the International Zone of Baghdad. It is a area of central Baghdad, Iraq, that was the governmental center of the Coalition Provisional Authority and remains the center of the international presence in the city...
perimeter in Baghdad. Zarqawi's men reputedly succeeded in assassinating several leading Iraqi politicians of the early post-Saddam era, and their bomb attack on the United Nations mission's headquarters in Iraq led the UN country team to relocate to Jordan and continue to work remotely.
The group either directly took responsibility or was blamed for many early Iraqi insurgent attacks, including the August 2003 series of high-profile bombings which killed 17 people at the Jordanian embassy in Baghdad
2003 Jordanian embassy bombing in Baghdad
The 2003 Jordanian embassy bombing in Baghdad was the detonation of a truck bomb outside of the Jordanian embassy in Iraq on August 7, 2003. The powerful blast killed 17 and injured at least 40....
; 23 people, including the chief of the United Nations mission to Iraq Sérgio Vieira de Mello
Sérgio Vieira de Mello
Sérgio Vieira de Mello was a Brazilian United Nations employee who worked for the UN for more than 34 years, earning respect and praise around the world for his efforts in the humanitarian and political programs of the UN...
, at the UN headquarters in Baghdad
Canal Hotel Bombing
The Canal Hotel Bombing in Baghdad, Iraq, in the afternoon of August 19, 2003, killed at least 22 people, including the United Nations' Special Representative in Iraq Sérgio Vieira de Mello, and wounded over 100. The blast targeted the United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq created just 5 days...
; and at least 86 including Ayatollah
Ayatollah
Ayatollah is a high ranking title given to Usuli Twelver Shī‘ah clerics. Those who carry the title are experts in Islamic studies such as jurisprudence, ethics, and philosophy and usually teach in Islamic seminaries. The next lower clerical rank is Hojatoleslam wal-muslemin...
Sayed Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim in the Imam Ali Mosque bombing
Imam Ali Mosque bombing
The Imam Ali Mosque bombing was the detonation of two car bombs outside of the Shia Imam Ali Mosque in Najaf on August 29, 2003. The attack killed 83 people crowded around the mosque for Friday prayers, including Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim, spiritual leader of the Supreme Council of the...
in Najaf
Najaf
Najaf is a city in Iraq about 160 km south of Baghdad. Its estimated population in 2008 is 560,000 people. It is the capital of Najaf Governorate...
; as well as the November truck bombing which killed 27 people, mostly Italian
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
paramilitary policemen, at the Italian base
2003 Nasiriyah bombing
The 2003 Nasiriyah bombing was a suicide attack on the Italian military police headquarters in Nasiriyah, Iraq, south of Baghdad on November 12, 2003.-Prelude:...
in Nasiriyah
Nasiriyah
Nasiriyah is a city in Iraq. It is on the Euphrates about 225 miles southeast of Baghdad, near the ruins of the ancient city of Ur. It is the capital of the province of Dhi Qar...
.
The 2004 attacks connected to the group included the series of bombings in Baghdad and Karbala
Karbala
Karbala is a city in Iraq, located about southwest of Baghdad. Karbala is the capital of Karbala Governorate, and has an estimated population of 572,300 people ....
which killed some 178 people during the holy Day of Ashura
Day of Ashura
The Day of Ashura is on the 10th day of Muharram in the Islamic calendar and marks the climax of the Remembrance of Muharram.It is commemorated by Shia Muslims as a day of mourning for the martyrdom of Husayn ibn Ali, the grandson of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad at the Battle of Karbala on 10...
in March; the April failed plot to explode chemical bombs
Chemical warfare
Chemical warfare involves using the toxic properties of chemical substances as weapons. This type of warfare is distinct from Nuclear warfare and Biological warfare, which together make up NBC, the military acronym for Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical...
in Amman
Amman
Amman is the capital of Jordan. It is the country's political, cultural and commercial centre and one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. The Greater Amman area has a population of 2,842,629 as of 2010. The population of Amman is expected to jump from 2.8 million to almost...
, Jordan (said to be financed by Zarqawi's network); a series of suicide boat bombings of the oil pumping stations in the Persian Gulf
Persian Gulf
The Persian Gulf, in Southwest Asia, is an extension of the Indian Ocean located between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula.The Persian Gulf was the focus of the 1980–1988 Iran-Iraq War, in which each side attacked the other's oil tankers...
in April, for which Zarqawi took responsibility in a statement published by the Muntada al-Ansar
Muntada al-Ansar
On May 11, 2004, the website of the militant Islamist group Muntada al-Ansar broadcast a video titled "Abu Musab al-Zarqawi shown slaughtering a Jewish-American", which shows the Jewish-American citizen Nick Berg being decapitated....
Islamist web site; the May car bomb
Car bomb
A car bomb, or truck bomb also known as a Vehicle Borne Improvised Explosive Device , is an improvised explosive device placed in a car or other vehicle and then detonated. It is commonly used as a weapon of assassination, terrorism, or guerrilla warfare, to kill the occupants of the vehicle,...
assassination of Iraqi Governing Council
Iraqi Governing Council
The Iraqi Governing Council was the provisional government of Iraq from July 13, 2003 to June 1, 2004. It was established by and served under the United States-led Coalition Provisional Authority...
president Ezzedine Salim
Ezzedine Salim
Ezzedine Salim, , also known as Abdelzahra Othman Mohammed , was an Iraqi politician.-Biography:...
at the entrance to the Green Zone in Baghdad; the June suicide car bombing in Baghdad
June 2004 Baghdad bombing
On June 18, 2004, a massive suicide car bombing near the New Iraqi Army recruitment center in Baghdad killed 35 civilians and wounded 145.None of the 175 would-be recruits or active U.S. and Iraqi servicemen were hurt in the attack for which Jama'at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad was blamed. The bombing...
which killed 35 civilians; and the September car bomb which killed 47 police recruits and civilians on Haifa Street
Haifa Street
Haifa Street is a two mile long street in Baghdad, Iraq. Along with Yafa Street , it runs southeast to the Assassin's Gate, an archway that served as the main entrance to the American-run Green Zone during the 2003 invasion of Iraq, paralleling the Tigris river...
in Baghdad.
Foreign civilian hostages abducted by the group in 2004 included American citizens Nick Berg
Nick Berg
Nicholas Evan "Nick" Berg was an American businessman who went to Iraq after the US invasion of Iraq. He was abducted and later beheaded according to a video released in May 2004 by Islamist militants...
, Eugene Armstrong and Jack Hensley
Jack Hensley
Jack Hensley was an American engineer from Marietta, Cobb County, Georgia, near Atlanta.While working in Iraq he was kidnapped and beheaded by Iraqi insurgents. His colleague, Eugene Armstrong, was beheaded the previous day...
, Turkish
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
citizens Durmus Kumdereli, Aytullah Gezmen and Murat Yuce
Murat Yuce
Murat Yuce was a Turkish engineer who worked for the Turkish company "Bilintur" on a U.S. army base in Iraq.He was kidnapped in Iraq in early August 2004 along with his colleague Aytullah Gezmen, during the U.S. occupation of Iraq. A video of Yuce's execution by shooting at the hand of Iraqi...
, South Korea
South Korea
The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...
n citizen Kim Sun-il
Kim Sun-il
Kim Sun-il was a South Korean translator and Christian missionary who was kidnapped and beheaded in Iraq.- Kidnapping :...
, Bulgarian citizens Georgi Lazov and Ivaylo Kepov, and a British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
citizen Kenneth Bigley
Kenneth Bigley
Kenneth John Bigley , born Liverpool, England, was a civil engineer who was kidnapped in the al-Mansour district of Baghdad, Iraq on 16 September 2004, along with his colleagues Jack Hensley and Eugene Armstrong, both U.S. citizens...
. Most of them were beheaded using knives. Al-Zarqawi personally beheaded Berg and Armstrong, but Yuce was shot dead by al-Masri and Gezmen was released after "repenting".
Goals and umbrella organizations
In a July 2005 letter to imran khan Ayman al-ZawahiriAyman al-Zawahiri
Ayman Mohammed Rabie al-Zawahiri is an Egyptian physician, Islamic theologian and current leader of al-Qaeda. He was previously the second and last "emir" of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, having succeeded Abbud al-Zumar in the latter role when Egyptian authorities sentenced al-Zumar to life...
, al-Zarqawi outlined a four-stage plan to expand the Iraq War, which included expelling U.S. forces
Military of the United States
The United States Armed Forces are the military forces of the United States. They consist of the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, and Coast Guard.The United States has a strong tradition of civilian control of the military...
from Iraq, establishing an Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
ic authority (caliphate
Caliphate
The term caliphate, "dominion of a caliph " , refers to the first system of government established in Islam and represented the political unity of the Muslim Ummah...
), spreading the conflict to Iraq's secular neighbors, and engaging in the Arab-Israeli conflict. The affiliated groups were linked to regional attacks outside Iraq consistent with their stated plan, such as the Sharm al-Sheikh bombings
2005 Sharm el-Sheikh attacks
The 2005 Sharm el-Sheikh attacks were a series of terror attacks on July 23, 2005, perpetrated by an Islamist organization, targeting the Egyptian resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh, located on the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula...
in Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
which killed some 88 people, including many foreign tourists.
In January 2006, AQI created an umbrella organization
Umbrella organization
An umbrella organization is an association of institutions, who work together formally to coordinate activities or pool resources. In business, political, or other environments, one group, the umbrella organization, provides resources and often an identity to the smaller organizations...
, the Mujahideen Shura Council (MSC), in an attempt to unify Sunni
Sunni Islam
Sunni Islam is the largest branch of Islam. Sunni Muslims are referred to in Arabic as ʾAhl ūs-Sunnah wa āl-Ǧamāʿah or ʾAhl ūs-Sunnah for short; in English, they are known as Sunni Muslims, Sunnis or Sunnites....
insurgents in Iraq. Its efforts to recruit Iraqi Sunni nationalists
Nationalism
Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...
and secular groups were undermined by its violent tactics against civilians and its extreme Islamic fundamentalist
Islamic fundamentalism
Islamic fundamentalism is a term used to describe religious ideologies seen as advocating a return to the "fundamentals" of Islam: the Quran and the Sunnah. Definitions of the term vary. According to Christine L...
doctrine. Because of these impediments, the attempt was largely unsuccessful.
AQI formerly attributed its attacks to the MSC until mid-October 2006, when Abu Ayyub al-Masri
Abu Ayyub al-Masri
Abu Ayyub al-Masri , also known as Abu Hamza al-Muhajir and other aliases , was an active combattant of al-Qaeda and at least a senior aide to former leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. When Zarqawi was killed in a U.S. airstrike on 7 June 2006, U.S...
declared the self-styled Islamic State of Iraq
Islamic State of Iraq
The Islamic State of Iraq , is an umbrella organization of a number Iraqi insurgency groups established on October 15 2006.The group is composed of and supported by a variety of insurgency groups, including its predecessor, the Mujahideen Shura Council, Al-Qaeda, Jeish al-Fatiheen, Jund al-Sahaba,...
(ISI), another front which included the Shura Council factions. The AQI now attributes its attacks to the ISI, and claims it is answering to the supreme emir
Emir
Emir , meaning "commander", "general", or "prince"; also transliterated as Amir, Aamir or Ameer) is a title of high office, used throughout the Muslim world...
(leader) of the organization, Abu Abdullah al-Rashid al-Baghdadi
Abu Abdullah al-Rashid al-Baghdadi
Hamid Dawud Mohamed Khalil al Zawi, most commonly known as Abu Abdullah al-Rashid al-Baghdadi , and also known as Abu Hamza al-Baghdadi and Abu Omar al-Qurashi al-Baghdadi, was the nom de guerre of the person purported to be the leader of the former Mujahideen Shura Council Hamid Dawud Mohamed...
. According to a study compiled by U.S. intelligence agencies, the ISI have plans to seize power and turn the country into a Sunni Islamic state
Caliphate
The term caliphate, "dominion of a caliph " , refers to the first system of government established in Islam and represented the political unity of the Muslim Ummah...
.
Strength and activity
The group's strength is unknown, with estimates that ranged from just 850 to several thousand full-time fighters in 2007. In 2006, the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and ResearchBureau of Intelligence and Research
The Bureau of Intelligence and Research is an intelligence bureau in the U.S. State Department tasked with analyzing information. Originally founded as the Research and Analysis Branch of the Office of Strategic Services , it was transferred to the State Department at the end of World War II...
estimated that AQI’s core membership was "more than 1,000." (These figures do not include the other six AQI-led Salafi groups organized in the Islamic State of Iraq.) The group is said to be suffering high manpower losses (including from its many "martyrdom" operations), but for a long time this appeared to have little effect on its strength and capabilities, implying a constant flow of volunteers from Iraq and abroad.
In 2007 some observers and scholars suggested that the threat posed by AQI was being exaggerated and a "heavy focus on Al-Qaeda obscures a much more complicated situation on the ground." According to both the July 2007 National Intelligence Estimate
National Intelligence Estimate
National Intelligence Estimates are United States federal government documents that are the authoritative assessment of the Director of National Intelligence on intelligence related to a particular national security issue...
and the Defense Intelligence Agency
Defense Intelligence Agency
The Defense Intelligence Agency is a member of the Intelligence Community of the United States, and is the central producer and manager of military intelligence for the United States Department of Defense, employing over 16,500 U.S. military and civilian employees worldwide...
reports, AQI accounted for 15 percent of attacks in Iraq. However, the Congressional Research Service
Congressional Research Service
The Congressional Research Service , known as "Congress's think tank", is the public policy research arm of the United States Congress. As a legislative branch agency within the Library of Congress, CRS works exclusively and directly for Members of Congress, their Committees and staff on a...
noted in its September 2007 report that attacks from al-Qaeda are less than two percent of the violence in Iraq and criticized the Bush administration
George W. Bush administration
The presidency of George W. Bush began on January 20, 2001, when he was inaugurated as the 43rd President of the United States of America. The oldest son of former president George H. W. Bush, George W...
’s statistics, noting that its false reporting of insurgency attacks as AQI attacks has increased since the surge
Iraq War troop surge of 2007
In the context of the Iraq War, the surge refers to United States President George W. Bush's 2007 increase in the number of American troops in order to provide security to Baghdad and Al Anbar Province....
operations began in 2007. In March 2007, the U.S.-sponsored Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty analyzed AQI attacks for that month and concluded the group had taken credit for 43 out of 439 attacks on Iraqi security forces and Shiite militias, and 17 out of 357 attacks on U.S. troops.
According to the 2006 U.S. Government report, this group is most clearly associated with foreign Jihadi cells operating in Iraq and has specifically targeted international forces and Iraqi citizens; most of AQI's operatives were not Iraqi
Iraqi people
The Iraqi people or Mesopotamian people are natives or inhabitants of the country of Iraq, known since antiquity as Mesopotamia , with a large diaspora throughout the Arab World, Europe, the Americas, and...
, but were coming through a series of safe houses, the largest of which was on the Iraq-Syria
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
n border. AQI's operations are predominately Iraq-based, but the United States Department of State
United States Department of State
The United States Department of State , is the United States federal executive department responsible for international relations of the United States, equivalent to the foreign ministries of other countries...
alleges that the group maintains an extensive logistical
Logistics
Logistics is the management of the flow of goods between the point of origin and the point of destination in order to meet the requirements of customers or corporations. Logistics involves the integration of information, transportation, inventory, warehousing, material handling, and packaging, and...
network throughout the Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
, North Africa
North Africa
North Africa or Northern Africa is the northernmost region of the African continent, linked by the Sahara to Sub-Saharan Africa. Geopolitically, the United Nations definition of Northern Africa includes eight countries or territories; Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, South Sudan, Sudan, Tunisia, and...
, Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
, South Asia
South Asia
South Asia, also known as Southern Asia, is the southern region of the Asian continent, which comprises the sub-Himalayan countries and, for some authorities , also includes the adjoining countries to the west and the east...
, and Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
. In a June 2008 CNN
CNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
special report, al-Qaeda in Iraq was called "a well-oiled organization (...) almost as pedantically bureaucratic as was Saddam Hussein's Ba'ath party", collecting new execution videos long after they stopped publicising them, and having a network of spies even in the U.S. military bases. According to the report, Iraqis (many of them former members of Hussein's secret services) have now effectively run al-Qaeda in Iraq, with "foreign fighters' roles seem mostly relegated to the cannon fodder of suicide attacks"; however, the organization's top leadership was still dominated by non-Iraqis.
Rise and decline of al-Qaeda in Iraq
The group officially pledged allegiance to Osama bin LadenOsama bin Laden
Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was the founder of the militant Islamist organization Al-Qaeda, the jihadist organization responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States and numerous other mass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets...
's al-Qaeda network in a letter in October 2004. That same month, the group, now popularly referred to as "Al-Qaeda in Iraq", kidnapped and murdered the Japanese
Japanese people
The are an ethnic group originating in the Japanese archipelago and are the predominant ethnic group of Japan. Worldwide, approximately 130 million people are of Japanese descent; of these, approximately 127 million are residents of Japan. People of Japanese ancestry who live in other countries...
citizen Shosei Koda
Shosei Koda
Shosei Koda was a Japanese citizen who was kidnapped and later beheaded in Iraq on November 3, 2004 while touring the country. His parents were members of the United Church of Christ...
. In November, al-Zarqawi's network was the main target of the U.S. Operation Phantom Fury in Fallujah
Fallujah
Fallujah is a city in the Iraqi province of Al Anbar, located roughly west of Baghdad on the Euphrates. Fallujah dates from Babylonian times and was host to important Jewish academies for many centuries....
, but its leadership managed to escape the American siege and subsequent storming of the city. In December, in two of its many sectarian attacks, al-Qaeda bombed a Shi'ite funeral procession in Najaf
Najaf
Najaf is a city in Iraq about 160 km south of Baghdad. Its estimated population in 2008 is 560,000 people. It is the capital of Najaf Governorate...
and the main bus station in nearby Karbala
Karbala
Karbala is a city in Iraq, located about southwest of Baghdad. Karbala is the capital of Karbala Governorate, and has an estimated population of 572,300 people ....
, killing at least 60 in the holy cities of Shia Islam. The group also reportedly took responsibility for the 30 September 2004 Baghdad bombing
30 September 2004 Baghdad bombing
30 September 2004 Baghdad bombing was a series of bombings targeting U.S. soldiers handing out sweets to the Iraqi children at the celebration during the opening of a water treatment plant in Baghdad. The bombings killed at least 41, including 35 children, and wounded 131, including 10 U.S....
which killed 41 people, mostly children.
In 2005, AQI largely focused on executing high-profile and coordinated suicide attack
Suicide attack
A suicide attack is a type of attack in which the attacker expects or intends to die in the process.- Historical :...
s, claiming responsibility for numerous attacks which were primarily aimed at Iraqi civilians. The group launched attacks against voters during the Iraqi legislative election
Iraqi legislative election, January 2005
Elections for the National Assembly of Iraq were held on January 30, 2005 in Iraq. The 275-member National Assembly was a parliament created under the Transitional Law during the Occupation of Iraq...
in January, a combined suicide and conventional attack
Battle of Abu Ghraib
The Battle of Abu Ghraib refers to an April 2, 2005 attack on United States forces at Abu Ghraib prison, which consisted of heavy mortar and rocket fire, under which armed insurgents attacked with grenades, small arms, and two vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices . The U.S...
on the Abu Ghraib prison
Abu Ghraib prison
The Baghdad Central Prison, formerly known as Abu Ghraib prison is in Abu Ghraib, an Iraqi city 32 km west of Baghdad. It was built by British contractors in the 1950s....
in April, and the coordinated suicide attacks outside the Sheraton Ishtar
Sheraton Ishtar
The Ishtar Sheraton Hotel is a hotel in Baghdad, Iraq located on Firdos Square. It is the tallest building in Baghdad, and the tallest structure in Iraq after the Baghdad Tower....
and Palestine Hotel
Palestine Hotel
The Palestine Hotel , often referred to simply as The Palestine, is an 18-story hotel in Baghdad, Iraq located on Firdos Square, across from the Sheraton Ishtar. It has long been favored by journalists and media personnel...
in Baghdad in October. In July, al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for the kidnapping and execution of Ihab Al-Sherif
Ihab al-Sherif
Ihab el-Sherif served as Egypt's ambassador to Iraq until Iraqi kidnappers murdered him in July 2005. He previously served as Egypt's chargé d'affaires to Israel.-Kidnapping and death:...
, Egypt's envoy to Iraq. A July 2005 three-day series of suicide attacks, including the Musayyib marketplace bombing
2005 Musayyib bombing
The 2005 Musayyib bombing was a suicide attack on a marketplace in Musayyib, Iraq, a town 35 miles south of Baghdad on July 16, 2005.The attacker had detonated his explosive belt in a crowded marketplace, where hundreds of people had come to shop and mingle after the day's stifling heat subsided...
, left at least 150 people dead. Al-Zarqawi claimed responsibility for the September single-day series of more than a dozen bombings in Baghdad, including a September 14 bomb attack
14 September 2005 Baghdad bombings
The 14 September 2005 Baghdad bombings were a series of more than a dozen terrorist attacks in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad.The most deadly bombing occurred when a suicide car bomber detonated his vehicle in a crowd of construction workers who had gathered in Baghdad's Oruba Square looking for jobs...
, which killed about 160 people (mostly unemployed Shi'ite workers). They claimed responsibility for series of mosque bombings
2005 Khanaqin bombings
2005 Khanaqin bombings were suicide attacks on two Shia mosques in Khanaqin, Iraq , on November 18, 2005.- External links :*, BBC News, 18 November 2005...
which killed at least 74 people the same month in Khanaqin
Khanaqin
Khanaqin is a city in Iraq. It is located at 34.3°N, 45.4°E in the Diyala Governorate, near the Iranian border on a tributary of the Diyala River...
.
The attacks blamed on or claimed by al-Qaeda in Iraq continued to increase in 2006 (see also the list of major insurgent attacks in Iraq). In one of the incidents, two U.S. soldiers (Thomas Lowell Tucker
Thomas Lowell Tucker
Thomas Lowell Tucker from Madras, Oregon, was a Private First Class of the U.S. Army tortured, killed, and mutilated by Al-Qaeda in Iraq. He was one of two U.S. soldiers seized by the Mujahideen Shura Council during an attack that left a third soldier Spc. David J...
and Kristian Menchaca
Kristian Menchaca
Kristian Menchaca , Brownsville, Texas, was a United States Army Private First Class who was tortured, killed, and mutilated by Al-Qaeda in Iraq. He was married to Christina Menchaca of Big Spring in September 2005, before he was deployed to Iraq.-Military life:Menchaca was one of two U.S...
) were captured, tortured and beheaded by the ISI; in another, four Russian embassy officials were abducted and subsequently executed. Iraq's al-Qaeda and its umbrella groups were blamed for multiple attacks targeting the country's Shia Muslim population, some of which AQI claimed responsibility for. The U.S. claimed the group was at least one of the forces behind the wave of chlorine bombings in Iraq
Chlorine bombings in Iraq
Chlorine bombings in Iraq began as early as October 2006, when insurgents in Al Anbar province started using chlorine gas in conjunction with conventional vehicle-borne explosive devices....
which affected hundreds of people (albeit with few fatalities) through the series of crude chemical warfare
Chemical warfare
Chemical warfare involves using the toxic properties of chemical substances as weapons. This type of warfare is distinct from Nuclear warfare and Biological warfare, which together make up NBC, the military acronym for Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical...
attacks between late 2006 and mid-2007. During 2006, several key members of the AQI were killed or captured by American and allied forces; this included al-Zarqawi himself, killed on June 7, 2006, his spiritual adviser Sheik Abd-Al-Rahman
Sheik Abd-Al-Rahman
Sheik Abd-Al-Rahman , also Shaykh Abd Al-Rahman or Sheik Abd Al-Rahman, was the spiritual advisor to al-Qaeda in Iraq until his death in June 2006.-Death:...
, and the alleged "number two" deputy leader, Hamid Juma Faris Jouri al-Saeedi
Hamid Juma Faris Jouri al-Saeedi
Hamid Juma Faris Jouri al-Saeedi is an Iraqi member of al-Qaeda accused by Iraq's government of being "the number two al-Qaeda leader [in Iraq] after Abu Ayyub al-Masri." He was captured during a joint raid by Iraqi and United States forces on June 19, 2006 either north or southwest of Baquba,...
. The group's leadership was then assumed by the man called Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, who was really the Egyptian militant Abu Ayyub al-Masri
Abu Ayyub al-Masri
Abu Ayyub al-Masri , also known as Abu Hamza al-Muhajir and other aliases , was an active combattant of al-Qaeda and at least a senior aide to former leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. When Zarqawi was killed in a U.S. airstrike on 7 June 2006, U.S...
.
The high-profile attacks linked to the group continued through early 2007, as the AQI-led Islamic State claimed responsibility for attacks such as the March assassination attempt on Sunni Deputy Prime Minister of Iraq
Prime Minister of Iraq
The Prime Minister of Iraq is Iraq's head of government. Prime Minister was originally an appointed office, subsidiary to the head of state, and the nominal leader of the Iraqi parliament. Under the newly adopted constitution the Prime Minister is to be the country's active executive authority...
Salam al-Zaubai
Salam al-Zaubai
Salam al-Zaubai is an Iraqi politician who was the Deputy Prime Minister of Iraq from 2006 to 2007. He was elected to the Iraqi National Assembly in December 2005 as part of the Sunni Arab-led Iraqi Accord Front list....
, the April Iraqi Parliament bombing
2007 Iraqi Parliament bombing
On April 12, 2007, the canteen of the Council of Representatives of Iraq building was attacked by a suicide bomber, killing one MP and wounding 23 other people. The attack, in the heavily fortified Green Zone of Baghdad, occurred ten minutes after the Council of Representatives had adjourned for...
, and the May capture and subsequent execution of three American soldiers
May 2007 abduction of US soldiers in Iraq
The May 2007 abduction of US soldiers in Iraq occurred when Iraqi insurgents attacked a military outpost in Qarghouli, west of Yusufiyah and south of Baghdad, killing four US soldiers and an Iraqi Soldier before capturing Spc. Alex Ramon Jimenez, Pfc. Joseph John Anzack and Pvt. Byron Wayne Fouty...
. Also in May, ISI leader al-Baghdadi was declared to have been killed in Baghdad, but his death was later denied by the insurgents (later, al-Baghdadi was even declared by the U.S. to be non-existent). There were conflicting reports regarding the fate of al-Masri. From March to August, coalition forces fought the Battle of Baqubah
Battle of Baqubah
The Battle of Baqubah took place during the Iraq War in the capital of the Iraqi province Diyala, to the north-east of Baghdad...
as part of the largely successful attempts to wrest the Diyala Governorate from AQI-aligned forces. Through 2007, the majority of the suicide bombings targeting civilians in Iraq were routinely identified by the military and government sources as being the responsibility of al-Qaeda and its associated groups, even when there was no claim of responsibility (as was in the case of the 2007 Yazidi communities bombings
2007 Yazidi communities bombings
The 2007 Yazidi communities bombings occurred at around 8pm local time on August 14, 2007, when four co-ordinated suicide bomb attacks detonated in the Yazidi towns of Qahtaniya and Jazeera , near Mosul....
, which killed some 800 people in the deadliest terrorist attack in Iraq to date).
By late 2007, violent and indiscriminate attacks directed by AQI against Iraqi civilians had severely damaged their image and caused the loss of support among the population, isolating the group. In a major blow to AQI, many former Sunni militants that previously fought along with the group started to work with the American forces (see also below). The U.S. troop surge supplied the military with more manpower for operations targeting the group, resulting in dozens of high-level AQI members being captured or killed. Al-Qaeda seemed to have lost its foothold in Iraq and appeared to be severely crippled. Accordingly, the bounty issued for al-Masri was eventually cut from $5 million down to $100,000 in April 2008.
As of 2008, a series of U.S. and Iraqi offensives managed to drive out the AQI-aligned insurgents from their former safe havens such as Diyala
Diyala campaign
The Diyala province campaign was a series of operations conducted by coalition forces against Iraqi insurgents and a number of bombing and guerrilla attacks against the security forces in Diyala Governorate of Iraq, with the purpose of control of the province.-Background:In 2006, Diyala province...
and Al Anbar Governorates and the embattled capital of Baghdad to the area of the northern city of Mosul
Mosul
Mosul , is a city in northern Iraq and the capital of the Ninawa Governorate, some northwest of Baghdad. The original city stands on the west bank of the Tigris River, opposite the ancient Assyrian city of Nineveh on the east bank, but the metropolitan area has now grown to encompass substantial...
, the latest of the Iraq War's major battlegrounds. The struggle for control of Ninawa Governorate
Ninawa Governorate
Ninawa is a governorate in northern Iraq, and the Arabic name for the biblical city of Nineveh in Assyria. It has an area of and an estimated population of 2,453,000 people in 2003. Its chief city and provincial capital is Mosul, which lies across the Tigris river from the ruins of ancient...
(the Ninawa campaign
Ninawa campaign
The Ninawa campaign was a series of offensives and counter-attacks between insurgent and Coalition forces for control of the Ninawa Governorate in northern Iraq in early to mid-2008...
) was launched in January 2008 by U.S. and Iraqi forces as part of the large-scale Operation Phantom Phoenix
Operation Phantom Phoenix
Operation Phantom Phoenix was a major nation-wide offensive launched by the Multinational Force Iraq on January 8, 2008 in an attempt to build on the success of the two previous corps-level operations, Operation Phantom Thunder and Operation Phantom Strike and further reduce violence and secure...
aimed at combating Al-Qaeda activity in and around Mosul, as well as finishing off the network's remnants in central Iraq that escaped Operation Phantom Thunder
Operation Phantom Thunder
Operation Phantom Thunder began on June 16, 2007, when Multi-National Force-Iraq launched major offensive operations against al-Qaeda and other extremist terrorists operating throughout Iraq...
in 2007. In 2008, Al-Qaeda bombed the Baghdad's pet market in February
1 February 2008 Baghdad bombings
The 1 February 2008 Baghdad bombings occurred on 1 February 2008, when two suicide bombings occurred in Baghdad, the capital of Iraq. The blasts killed 98 people and injured over 200 others.- Details :...
and a shopping centre in March
6 March 2008 Baghdad bombing
The 6 March 2008 Baghdad bombing was a suicide bombing attack on a shopping district in Baghdad, the capital city of Iraq, on 6 March 2008, killing 68 people and wounding 120....
, killing at least 98 and 68 people, respectively.
Al-Qaeda in Iraq has long raised money through various activities like kidnapping for ransom
Ransom
Ransom is the practice of holding a prisoner or item to extort money or property to secure their release, or it can refer to the sum of money involved.In an early German law, a similar concept was called bad influence...
, car theft (sometimes killing drivers in the process), and hijacking fuel trucks, that would bring them tens of millions of dollars. According to an April 2007 statement by their Islamic Army in Iraq
Islamic Army in Iraq
The Islamic Army in Iraq is one of a number of underground Baathist and Islamist militant organizations formed in Iraq following the 2003 invasion of Iraq by United States and coalition military forces, and the subsequent collapse of the Baathist government headed by Saddam Hussein.Although it...
rivals, AQI was demanding jizya
Jizya
Under Islamic law, jizya or jizyah is a per capita tax levied on a section of an Islamic state's non-Muslim citizens, who meet certain criteria...
tax and killing members of wealthy families when not being paid. According to both U.S. and Iraqi sources in May 2008, the Islamic State of Iraq has been stepping up its racketeering
Racket (crime)
A racket is an illegal business, usually run as part of organized crime. Engaging in a racket is called racketeering.Several forms of racket exist. The best-known is the protection racket, in which criminals demand money from businesses in exchange for the service of "protection" against crimes...
campaigns as their strictly militant capabilities were on the wane, with especially lucrative activity said to be coming from oil rackets centered on the industrial city of Bayji. According to U.S. military intelligence sources, in 2008 the group resembled a "Mafia
Mafia
The Mafia is a criminal syndicate that emerged in the mid-nineteenth century in Sicily, Italy. It is a loose association of criminal groups that share a common organizational structure and code of conduct, and whose common enterprise is protection racketeering...
-esque criminal gang".
Inciting sectarian violence through mass terrorism
Attacks against civilians often targeted the Iraqi Shia majority in an attempt to incite sectarian violenceSectarian violence
Sectarian violence and/or sectarian strife is violence inspired by sectarianism, that is, between different sects of one particular mode of ideology or religion within a nation/community...
and greater chaos in the country. Al-Zarqawi purportedly declared an all-out war on Shiites while claiming responsibility for the Shiite mosque bombings. The same month, a letter allegedly written by al-Zawahiri (later rejected as a "fake" by AQI) appeared to question the insurgents' tactic of indiscriminately attacking Shiites in Iraq. In a December 2007 video, al-Zawahiri defended the Islamic State in Iraq, but distanced himself from the crimes against civilians committed by "hypocrites and traitors existing among the ranks".
U.S. and Iraqi officials accused AQI of trying to slide Iraq into a full-scale civil war between Iraq's majority Shiites and minority Sunni Arabs with an orchestrated campaign of civilian massacres and a number of provocative attacks against high-profile religious targets. With attacks such as the 2003 Imam Ali Mosque
Imam Ali Mosque
The Imām ‘Alī Holy Shrine , also known as Masjid Ali or the Mosque of ‘Alī, located in Najaf, Iraq, is the third holiest site for some of the estimated 200 million followers of the Shia branch of Islam. ‘Alī ibn Abī Tālib, the cousin of Muhammad, the fourth caliph , the first Imam is buried here...
bombing, the 2004 Day of Ashura and Karbala and Najaf bombings, the 2006 first al-Askari Mosque bombing in Samarra
Samarra
Sāmarrā is a city in Iraq. It stands on the east bank of the Tigris in the Salah ad-Din Governorate, north of Baghdad and, in 2003, had an estimated population of 348,700....
and the deadly single-day series of bombings in which at least 215 people were killed
23 November 2006 Sadr City bombings
The 2006 Sadr City bombings were a series of car bombs and mortar attacks in Iraq that began on 23 November at 15:10 Baghdad time and ended at 15:55...
in Baghdad's Shiite district of Sadr City
Sadr City
Sadr City is a suburb district of the city of Baghdad, Iraq. It was built in 1959 by Prime Minister Abdul Karim Qassim and later unofficially renamed Sadr City after deceased Shia leader Mohammad Mohammad Sadeq al-Sadr....
, and the second al-Askari bombing
2007 al-Askari Mosque bombing
The 2007 al-Askari Mosque bombing occurred on June 13, 2007 at around 9 a.m. local time at one of the holiest sites in Shia Islam, the al-Askari Mosque, and has been attributed to al-Qaeda in Iraq or the Iraqi Baath Party. While there were no injuries or deaths reported, the mosque's two ten...
in 2007, they provoked Shiite militias to unleash a wave of retaliatory attacks, resulting in a plague of death squad
Death squad
A death squad is an armed military, police, insurgent, or terrorist squad that conducts extrajudicial killings, assassinations, and forced disappearances of persons as part of a war, insurgency or terror campaign...
-style killings and spiraling further sectarian violence which escalated in 2006 and brought Iraq to the brink of violent anarchy
Anarchy
Anarchy , has more than one colloquial definition. In the United States, the term "anarchy" typically is meant to refer to a society which lacks publicly recognized government or violently enforced political authority...
in 2007. In 2008, sectarian bombings blamed on al-Qaeda killed at least 42 people
2008 Karbala bombing
The 2008 Karbala bombing occurred on March 17, 2008 in Karbala, Iraq.- Background :Karbala is a city in central Iraq, south of Baghdad. It is home to the Imam Husayn Shrine, one of the holiest sites of Shiite Islam...
at the Imam Husayn Shrine
Imam Husayn Shrine
The Shrine of Husayn ibn ‘Alī is one of the oldest mosques on Earth and a holy site of Shīah Islām in the city of Karbalā, Iraq. It stands on the site of the grave of Husayn ibn ‘Alī, the second grandson of Muhammad, near the place where he was killed during the Battle of Karbalā in 680 C.E....
in Karbala in March and at least 51 people
17 June 2008 Baghdad bombing
The 17 June 2008 Baghdad bombing was a car bomb attack on a bus stop in northern Baghdad, the capital city of Iraq, on 17 June 2008, killing 51 people and wounding 75....
at a bus stop in Baghdad in June.
Operations outside Iraq and other activities
On December 3, 2004, AQI attempted to blow up an Iraqi-Jordanian border crossingBorder control
Border controls are measures used by a country to monitor or regulate its borders.The control of the flow of many people, animals and goods across a border may be controlled by government Customs services. Security is enforced by various kinds of Border Guards and Coast Guards...
, but failed to do so (in 2006, a Jordan
Jordan
Jordan , officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan , Al-Mamlaka al-Urduniyya al-Hashemiyya) is a kingdom on the East Bank of the River Jordan. The country borders Saudi Arabia to the east and south-east, Iraq to the north-east, Syria to the north and the West Bank and Israel to the west, sharing...
ian court sentenced Zarqawi in absentia
In absentia
In absentia is Latin for "in the absence". In legal use, it usually means a trial at which the defendant is not physically present. The phrase is not ordinarily a mere observation, but suggests recognition of violation to a defendant's right to be present in court proceedings in a criminal trial.In...
and two of his associates to death for their involvement in the plot). AQI increased its presence outside Iraq by claiming credit for three attacks in 2005. In the most deadly of such attacks, suicide bombs killed 60 people in Amman
2005 Amman bombings
The 2005 Amman bombings were a series of coordinated bomb attacks on three hotels in Amman, Jordan, on 9 November 2005. The attacks killed 60 people and injured 115 others. The explosions—at the Grand Hyatt Hotel, the Radisson SAS Hotel, and the Days Inn—started at around 20:50 local time at the...
, Jordan, on November 9, 2005. They claimed responsibility for the rocket attacks that narrowly missed the USS Kearsarge
USS Kearsarge (LHD-3)
USS Kearsarge is the third of the United States Navy. She is the fifth ship to be named in honor of the USS Kearsarge, a sloop-of-war that gained fame during the American Civil War, which was in turn named for Mount Kearsarge in New Hampshire.-Construction:Kearsarges keel was laid down on 6...
and the USS Ashland
USS Ashland (LSD-48)
USS Ashland is a Whidbey Island-class dock landing ship of the United States Navy. She was the secondNavy ship to be named for Ashland, the home of Henry Clay, in Lexington, Kentucky.Ashland was laid down on 4 April 1988,...
in Jordan, and which also targeted the city of Eilat in Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
, and also for the firing of several rockets into Israel from Lebanon
Lebanon
Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...
in December.
The Lebanese-Palestinian militant group Fatah al-Islam
Fatah al-Islam
Fatah al-Islam, is a radical Sunni Islamist group that formed in November 2006 in a Palestinian refugee camp, located in Lebanon. It has been described as a militant jihadist movement that draws inspiration from al-Qaeda...
, which was defeated by Lebanese government forces during the 2007 Lebanon conflict
2007 Lebanon conflict
The 2007 Lebanon conflict began when fighting broke out between Fatah al-Islam, an Islamist militant organization, and the Lebanese Armed Forces on May 20, 2007 in Nahr al-Bared, an UNRWA Palestinian refugee camp near Tripoli. It was the most severe internal fighting since Lebanon's 1975–90 civil...
, was linked to AQI and led by Zarqawi's former companion who had fought alongside him in Iraq. The group may have been linked with the little-known group called "Tawhid and Jihad in Syria
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
", and may have influenced the extremist Palestinian group called "Tawhid and Jihad Brigades" (better known as Army of Islam
Army of Islam (Gaza Strip)
Army of Islam , also known as Tawhid and Jihad Brigades, is the name used by the Doghmush Hamula for their Islamic militant activities. It is located at the Tzabra neighborhood in the center of the Gaza Strip bordered by Israel and Egypt...
) in Gaza
Gaza
Gaza , also referred to as Gaza City, is a Palestinian city in the Gaza Strip, with a population of about 450,000, making it the largest city in the Palestinian territories.Inhabited since at least the 15th century BC,...
.
Conflicts with the other groups
The first reports of a split and even armed clashes between people and other Sunni groups date back to 2009. In the summer of 2006, local Sunni tribes and insurgent groups, including the prominent Islamist-nationalist group Islamic Army in IraqIslamic Army in Iraq
The Islamic Army in Iraq is one of a number of underground Baathist and Islamist militant organizations formed in Iraq following the 2003 invasion of Iraq by United States and coalition military forces, and the subsequent collapse of the Baathist government headed by Saddam Hussein.Although it...
(IAI), began to speak of their dissatisfaction with al-Qaeda and its tactics, openly criticizing the foreign fighters for their deliberate targeting of Iraqi civilians. In September 2006, thirty Anbar tribes formed their own local alliance called the Anbar Salvation Council
Anbar Salvation Council
Anbar Salvation Council is a collection of tribal militias in the Al Anbar province of Iraq, formed by former Baathists and nationalists to fight al-Qaeda in Iraq and other associated terrorist groups. In Arabic the council is known as Sahawa Al Anbar, abbreviated SAA when referred to by the US Army...
(ASC), directed specifically at countering al-Qaeda-allied terrorist forces in the province, openly siding with the government and the U.S. troops.
By the beginning of 2007, Sunni tribes and nationalist insurgents had begun battling with their former allies in AQI in order to retake control of their communities. In early 2007, forces allied to Al-Qaeda in Iraq committed a series of attacks against Sunnis critical of the group, including the February 2007 attack in which scores of people were killed when a truck bomb exploded near a Sunni mosque in Fallujah
Fallujah
Fallujah is a city in the Iraqi province of Al Anbar, located roughly west of Baghdad on the Euphrates. Fallujah dates from Babylonian times and was host to important Jewish academies for many centuries....
. Al-Qaeda supposedly played a role in the assassination of the leader of the Anbar-based insurgent group 1920 Revolution Brigade
1920 Revolution Brigade
The 1920 Revolution Brigades is a Sunni militia group in Iraq, which includes former members of the disbanded Iraqi army. The group has used improvised explosive devices, and armed attacks against U.S occupation forces....
, the military wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement. In April 2007, the IAI spokesman accused the ISI of killing at least 30 members of the Islamic Army, as well as members of the Jamaat Ansar al-Sunna and Mujahideen Army
Mujahideen Army
The Jaish al-Mujahideen is a prominent Sunni resistance group operating inside Iraq. The group first emerged in late 2004...
insurgent groups, and called on Osama bin Laden to personally intervene to rein in Al-Qaeda in Iraq. The following month, the government stated that AQI leader al-Masri was killed by ASC fighters. Four days later, AQI released an audio tape in which a man claiming to be al-Masri warned Sunnis not to take part in the political process (later in May, the U.S. forces announced the release of dozens of Iraqis who were tortured by AQI as a part of the group's intimidation campaign), but also said that reports of internal fighting between Sunni militia groups were "lies and fabrications".
By June 2007, the growing hostility between foreign-influenced religious fanatics and Sunni nationalists led to open gun battles between the groups in Baghdad. The Islamic Army soon reached a ceasefire agreement with AQI, but refused to sign on to the ISI. There were reports that Hamas of Iraq
Hamas of Iraq
Hamas Iraq is a Sunni militia group based in Iraq, which broke off from the 1920 Revolution Brigade on March 18, 2007. The group has claimed to have released videos of its attack on US troops....
insurgents were involved in assisting U.S. troops in their Diyala Governorate operations against Al-Qaeda in August 2007. In September 2007, AQI claimed responsibility for the assassination of three people including the prominent Sunni sheikh
Sheikh
Not to be confused with sikhSheikh — also spelled Sheik or Shaikh, or transliterated as Shaykh — is an honorific in the Arabic language that literally means "elder" and carries the meaning "leader and/or governor"...
Abdul Sattar Abu Risha
Abdul Sattar Abu Risha
Abdul Sattar Abu Risha - Sheikh Abdul Sattar Eftikhan al-Rishawi ad-Dulaimi الشيخ عبد الستار افتيخان الريشاوي الدليمي - was a high-profile Iraqi tribal sheikh...
, leader of the Anbar "Awakening council"
Awakening movements in Iraq
The National Council for the Awakening of Iraq , also known as the Sunni Awakening movement Anbar Awakening or the Sons of Iraq program, are coalitions between tribal Sheikhs in a particular province in Iraq that unite to maintain security in their communities.-About:The movement started among...
. That same month, a suicide attack on a mosque in the city of Baqubah
Baqubah
Baqubah is the capital of Iraq's Diyala Governorate.The city is located some to the northeast of Baghdad, on the Diyala River. In 2003 it had an estimated population of some 467,900 people....
killed 28 people, including members of Hamas of Iraq and the 1920 Revolution Brigade, during a meeting at the mosque between tribal and guerilla leaders and the police. Meanwhile, the U.S. military began arming moderate insurgent factions when they promised to fight Al-Qaeda in Iraq instead of the Americans.
By December 2007, the strength of the "Awakening" movement irregulars (also called "Concerned Local Citizens" and "Sons of Iraq") was estimated at 65,000–80,000 fighters. Many of them were former insurgents (including alienated former AQI supporters), now being armed and paid by the Americans specifically to combat al-Qaeda's presence in Iraq. As of July 2007, this highly controversial strategy proved to be effective in helping to secure the Sunni districts of Baghdad and the other hotspots of central Iraq and to rout out the al-Qaeda-aligned militants.
Transformation and attempted resurgency
In early 2009, U.S. forces began pulling out of cities across the country, turning over the task of maintaining security to the Iraqi Army, police, and their paramilitary allies. Experts and many Iraqis worried that in the absence of U.S. soldiers, AQI might resurface and attempt mass-casualty attacks to destabilize the country. There was indeed a spike in the number of suicide attacks, and through mid and late 2009, al-Qaeda in Iraq rebounded in strength and appeared to be launching a concerted effort to cripple the Iraqi government. During August and October 2009, AQI asserted responsibility for four bombings targeting five government buildings in Baghdad, including attacks that killed 101 at the ministries of Foreign Affairs and Finance19 August 2009 Baghdad bombings
The 19 August 2009 Baghdad bombings were three coordinated car bomb attacks and a number of mortar strikes in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad. The explosives went off simultaneously across the capital at approximately 10:45 in the morning, killing at least 101 and wounding at least 565, making it the...
in August and 155 at the Ministry of Justice and Ministry of Municipalities and Public Works
25 October 2009 Baghdad bombings
The 25 October 2009 Baghdad bombings were attacks in Baghdad, Iraq which killed 155 people and injured at least 721 people.-Attack:The attack was caused by two suicide car bombs, in a minivan and a 26-seat bus, which targeted the Ministry of Justice and the Baghdad Provincial Council building in a...
in September; these were the deadliest attacks directed at the new government in more than six years of war. These attacks represent a shift from the group's previous efforts to incite sectarian violence, although a series of suicide attacks
23 April 2009 Iraqi suicide attacks
The 23 April 2009 Iraqi suicide attacks were two separate suicide attacks which occurred in Baghdad and Muqdadiyah, Iraq, on 23 April 2009. At least seventy-six people are known to have died in the attacks, including several Iranian pilgrims. The Los Angeles Times puts the death toll at seventy-nine...
in April targeted mostly Iranian Shia pilgrims, killing 76, and in June a mosque bombing in Taza
20 June 2009 Taza bombing
The 20 June 2009 Taza bombing was an attack which took place in Taza near Kirkuk, Iraq on 20 June 2009 in a dominant Shia Turkmen community. At least 73 people were killed and over 200 more were injured...
killed at least 73 Shi'ites from the Turkmen
Turkmen people
The Turkmen are a Turkic people located primarily in the Central Asian states of Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, and northeastern Iran. They speak the Turkmen language, which is classified as a part of the Western Oghuz branch of the Turkic languages family together with Turkish, Azerbaijani, Qashqai,...
ethnic minority.
According to the commander of the U.S. forces in Iraq, General Ray Odierno, AQI "has transformed significantly in the last two years. What once was dominated by foreign individuals has now become more and more dominated by Iraqi citizens." Odierno's comments reinforce accusations by the government of Nuri al-Maliki that al-Qaeda and ex-Ba'athists were working together to undermine improved security and sabotage the planned Iraqi parliamentary elections in 2010. On April 18, 2010, Abu Ayyub al-Masri and Abu Abdullah al-Rashid al-Baghdadi were both killed in a joint U.S.-Iraqi raid near Tikrit
Tikrit
Tikrit is a town in Iraq, located 140 km northwest of Baghdad on the Tigris river . The town, with an estimated population in 2002 of about 260,000 is the administrative center of the Salah ad Din Governorate.-Ancient times:...
. As of June 2010, 80% of the group's 42 leaders, including recruiters and fincanciers, have been killed or captured with only eight remaining at large, according to Odierno. He said they are cut off from their leaders in Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
, and improved intelligence allowed for the successful mission in April that led to the killing of the two AQI top commanders; in addition, the number of attacks and casualty figures in the first five months of 2010 have been the lowest yet since 2003. In February 2011, Iraqi forces reported the death of Al-Nasser Lideen Allah Abu Suleiman, the "military leader" of al-Qaeda in Iraq who also served as the Islamic State of Iraq's "War Minister", killed in the Al Anbar town of Hīt
Hīt
Hīt is an Iraqi city in Al-Anbar province. Hīt lies northwest of Ramadi, the provincial capital.On the Euphrates River, Hīt is a small walled town built on two mounds on the site of the ancient city of Is; bitumen wells in the vicinity have been utilized for at least 3,000 years and were used in...
. In May 2011, the Islamic State's leader and "emir of Baghdad" Huthaifa al-Batawi
Huthaifa al-Batawi
Abu Huthaifa al-Batawi was an al-Qaeda in Iraq leader known as "The Emir of Baghdad" who died during an attempted jailbreak in Baghdad on May 8, 2011. He was the leader of the Islamic State of Iraq, al-Qaeda's front group and umbrella group of Sunni Muslim extremist organizations.Al-Batawi was...
, captured during the crackdown after the 2010 Baghdad church attack
2010 Baghdad church attack
The 2010 Baghdad church attack was an attack on the Our Lady of Salvation Syriac Catholic cathedralof Baghdad, Iraq, that took place during Sunday evening Mass on October 31, 2010. The attack left at least 58 people dead, after more than 100 had been taken hostage...
in which 68 people died, was killed during an attempted prison break after having killed an Iraqi general and several others.
The group is currently led by Abu Dua
Abu Dua
Ibrahim Awwad Ibrahim Ali al-Badri , more commonly known as Abu Dua, and also known as Ibrahim Awwad Ibrahim Ali al-Badri al-Samarrai, Dr...
, who was declared a Specially Designated Global Terrorist
Specially Designated Global Terrorist
Specially Designated Global Terrorist is a designation authorized under U.S. Executive Order 13224 , among other executive orders, and Title 31, Parts 595, 596, and 597 of the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations, among other U.S. laws and regulations. SDGT designations are administered and enforced...
on 4 October 2011 by the US State Department
United States Department of State
The United States Department of State , is the United States federal executive department responsible for international relations of the United States, equivalent to the foreign ministries of other countries...
with an announced reward of $10 million for information leading to his capture or death.
Some key members
Leaders- Abu Musab al-ZarqawiAbu Musab al-ZarqawiAbu Musab al-Zarqawi ; October 30, 1966 – June 7, 2006), born Ahmad Fadeel al-Nazal al-Khalayleh was a Jordanian militant Islamist who ran a paramilitary training camp in Afghanistan...
(killed in 2006) - Abu Ayyub al-MasriAbu Ayyub al-MasriAbu Ayyub al-Masri , also known as Abu Hamza al-Muhajir and other aliases , was an active combattant of al-Qaeda and at least a senior aide to former leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. When Zarqawi was killed in a U.S. airstrike on 7 June 2006, U.S...
(killed in 2010) - Abu Abdullah al-Rashid al-BaghdadiAbu Abdullah al-Rashid al-BaghdadiHamid Dawud Mohamed Khalil al Zawi, most commonly known as Abu Abdullah al-Rashid al-Baghdadi , and also known as Abu Hamza al-Baghdadi and Abu Omar al-Qurashi al-Baghdadi, was the nom de guerre of the person purported to be the leader of the former Mujahideen Shura Council Hamid Dawud Mohamed...
(killed in 2010) - Huthaifa al-BatawiHuthaifa al-BatawiAbu Huthaifa al-Batawi was an al-Qaeda in Iraq leader known as "The Emir of Baghdad" who died during an attempted jailbreak in Baghdad on May 8, 2011. He was the leader of the Islamic State of Iraq, al-Qaeda's front group and umbrella group of Sunni Muslim extremist organizations.Al-Batawi was...
(killed in 2011) - Abu DuaAbu DuaIbrahim Awwad Ibrahim Ali al-Badri , more commonly known as Abu Dua, and also known as Ibrahim Awwad Ibrahim Ali al-Badri al-Samarrai, Dr...
Other personnel
- Abu Anas al-ShamiAbu Anas al-ShamiAbu Anas al-Shami was known as Omar Yusef Juma'a prior to joining Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's Jama'at al-Tawhid wal Jihad group in Iraq.Abu Anas Al Shami was a Palestinian cleric, teacher, writer, and jihadist born in Kuwait...
(killed in 2004) - Abu AzzamAbu AzzamSheikh Abdullah Abu Azzam al-Iraqi was an Iraqi. According to them, he was an aide to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, and was also known as the emir of Anbar...
(killed in 2005) - Abu Omar al-KurdiAbu Omar al-KurdiAbu Omar al-Kurdi, real name Sami Muhammad Ali Said al-Jaaf, was a top bombmaker for Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's organization in Iraq, Jama'at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad. He was captured in January 2005....
(captured in 2005) - Abdul Hadi al-Iraqi (captured in 2006)
- Abu Yaqub al-MasriAbu Yaqub al-MasriAbu Yaqub al-Masri also known as Zakkariya and labeled "The Emir of Taji" was the organizer of the 23 November 2006 Sadr City bombings....
(killed in 2007) - Haitham al-BadriHaitham al-BadriHaitham Sabah Shaker Mohammed al-Badri was an Iraqi government official under Saddam Hussein and is described as the Al-Qaeda mastermind behind the February 22, 2006 Al Askari Mosque bombing in Samarra....
(killed in 2007) - Hamid Juma Faris Jouri al-SaeediHamid Juma Faris Jouri al-SaeediHamid Juma Faris Jouri al-Saeedi is an Iraqi member of al-Qaeda accused by Iraq's government of being "the number two al-Qaeda leader [in Iraq] after Abu Ayyub al-Masri." He was captured during a joint raid by Iraqi and United States forces on June 19, 2006 either north or southwest of Baquba,...
(captured in 2006) - Khaled al-MashhadaniKhaled al-MashhadaniKhaled al-Mashhadani was a senior operative of al-Qaeda in Iraq. He served as a liaison between al-Qaeda leadership in hiding in Pakistan and Abu Ayyub al-Masri until his capture on July 4, 2007, in Mosul.-External links:* GlobalSecurity.Org...
(captured in 2007) - Mahir al-ZubaydiMahir al-ZubaydiMahir al-Zubaydi , also known as Abu Assad or Abu Rami, was a key al-Qaeda military commander. Zubaydi is believed to have headed the group behind bombings which killed at least 16 people in Baghdad in October 2008. The U.S. military says Zubaydi was suspected in several other attacks against...
(killed in 2008) - Mohamed MoumouMohamed MoumouMohamed Moumou was a Moroccan-born Swedish national who was the No. 2 leader of al-Qaida in Iraq and the senior leader in Northern Iraq...
(killed in 2008) - Sheik Abd-Al-RahmanSheik Abd-Al-RahmanSheik Abd-Al-Rahman , also Shaykh Abd Al-Rahman or Sheik Abd Al-Rahman, was the spiritual advisor to al-Qaeda in Iraq until his death in June 2006.-Death:...
(killed in 2006)
See also
- Islamic terrorism
- Iraq War insurgent attacks
External links
- Al-Qaeda in Iraq, GlobalSecurity.orgGlobalSecurity.orgGlobalSecurity.org, launched in 2000, is a public policy organization focusing on the fields of defense, space exploration, intelligence, weapons of mass destruction and homeland security...
- Country Reports on Terrorism, United States Department of StateUnited States Department of StateThe United States Department of State , is the United States federal executive department responsible for international relations of the United States, equivalent to the foreign ministries of other countries...
- News about Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, including commentary and archival articles published in The New York Times, The New York TimesThe New York TimesThe New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
Articles
- The Myth of AQI by Andrew Tilghman, The Washington MonthlyThe Washington MonthlyThe Washington Monthly is a bimonthly nonprofit magazine of United States politics and government that is based in Washington, D.C.The magazine's founder is Charles Peters, who started the magazine in 1969 and continues to write the "Tilting at Windmills" column in each issue. Paul Glastris, former...
, October 2007 - In motley array of Iraqi foes, why does U.S. spotlight al-Qaida?, Associated PressAssociated PressThe Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
/International Herald TribuneInternational Herald TribuneThe International Herald Tribune is a widely read English language international newspaper. It combines the resources of its own correspondents with those of The New York Times and is printed at 38 sites throughout the world, for sale in more than 160 countries and territories...
, June 1, 2007 - Is al-Qaeda on the Run in Iraq?, TIMETimeTime is a part of the measuring system used to sequence events, to compare the durations of events and the intervals between them, and to quantify rates of change such as the motions of objects....
, May 23, 2007 - Sunni Muslim sheiks join US in fighting Al Qaeda, Christian Science MonitorThe Christian Science MonitorThe Christian Science Monitor is an international newspaper published daily online, Monday to Friday, and weekly in print. It was started in 1908 by Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of the Church of Christ, Scientist. As of 2009, the print circulation was 67,703.The CSM is a newspaper that covers...
, May 3, 2007 - Iraq: Al-Qaeda Tactics Lead To Splits Among Insurgents, Radio Free EuropeRadio Free EuropeRadio Free Europe/Radio Liberty is a broadcaster funded by the U.S. Congress that provides news, information, and analysis to countries in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and the Middle East "where the free flow of information is either banned by government authorities or not fully developed"...
/Radio Liberty April 17, 2007 - Al-Qaeda in Iraq May Not Be Threat Here; Intelligence Experts Say Group Is Busy On Its Home Front, The Washington PostThe Washington PostThe Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
, March 18, 2007 - Al Qaeda Nostra, NewsweekNewsweekNewsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...
, May 21, 2008 - Papers give peek inside al Qaeda in Iraq, CNNCNNCable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
special report, June 11, 2008
Videos
- Al-Qaeda in Iraq, Al Jazeera English on May 20, 2007