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Kidnappings keep Iraq pot
boiling
By B Raman
Eight
Chinese workers from Fujian, who were travelling
by car to Jordan from Najaf in Iraq after having
worked in a Chinese-aided power project there, on
their way to catch a flight to China, were
detained by an Iraqi resistance group on January
18 to protest against Chinese involvement in the
project.
There is so far no reason to
believe that this was an instance of targeted
kidnapping by the resistance fighters. It would
seem that the kidnappers ran into the Chinese
workers as they were travelling by car to Jordan,
questioned them and detained them after finding
out that they were working in a Chinese-aided
project in Najaf.
A statement with a video
picture of the hostages released by the resistance
group the next day said: "We have taken these
individuals hostage as they were trying to leave
Iraq. After interrogating them, we learned that
they are Chinese working for a Chinese contracting
company in Iraq. This company is carrying out the
task of rebuilding one of the American bases. We
call upon the Chinese government to issue a
statement saying they would not allow their
citizens to help their enemy, the Americans."
The statement warned that the hostages
would face death unless and until Beijing
"clarified" its role in Iraq within 48 hours.
Thus, apart from a demand for a clarification
statement from the Chinese government and an
assurance of non-involvement of its citizens in
future in helping the US occupation forces in
Iraq, the kidnappers have not put forward any
other demand - at least not openly.
The
video recording showed the Chinese holding up
their passports. There were no indications of any
humiliation of the hostages, such as forcing them
to wear orange-colored clothes similar to those
worn by the American-held detainees in the
detention center at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.
While a Chinese government spokesman
claimed that the men had gone to Iraq individually
in search of work and, having failed, were
travelling by car to Jordan in order to return
home, the official Xinhua news agency quoted
sources as saying that the men had been working on
a Chinese project to rebuild a factory in Najaf -
a project which Xinhua said had nothing to do with
the US-led multinational forces. According to
Iraqi sources, they were working in a power
station which was being repaired by the Chinese
company employing them.
The Chinese
government spokesman said that the Chinese
government had always placed emphasis on the
protection of the interests of the Iraqi people
and added, "The Chinese people have always
cherished friendly feelings towards the Iraqi
people and sympathized and supported them."
The kidnapping came three weeks after a
visit to Beijing by Hoshiar A Zibari, the foreign
minister of the Iraqi interim government, in the
last week of December, for talks with Chinese
Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing. During the visit, Li
was quoted as saying that China attached great
importance to developing its relations with Iraq
and was willing to promote friendly bilateral
cooperation. He added that China closely followed
the situation in Iraq, and the attempts to
maintain Iraq's sovereignty, independence and
territorial integrity. He said that China hoped
Iraq would set up a widely representative
government through a general election and
continuously push forward its political
reconstruction. After the talks, the two sides
exchanged letters on China's assistance for Iraq's
general election.
China pledged US$25
million of humanitarian assistance to Iraq in
October 2003, in addition to reportedly promising
that the Chinese enterprises would play an active
role in the reconstruction of Iraq. It is,
however, not known whether Chinese workers are
employed in any other project in addition to the
Najaf power project in which the eight kidnapped
Chinese were reportedly working.
The
Chinese authorities seem to make a distinction
between assistance to the reconstruction projects
of the interim government, which would benefit the
Iraqi people and not the American occupiers, and
to projects associated with the American
occupation. The terrorists and resistance fighters
do not accept such a distinction and apparently
want Chinese workers not to work in any project in
Iraq till the US occupation ends.
In April
last year an unidentified Iraqi group kidnapped
seven Chinese farm laborers, also from Fujian, who
were travelling from Mosul to Fallujah. The
Chinese authorities claimed that those workers had
gone to Iraq on their own in search of jobs. All
of them were released unharmed.
The
responsibility for the present kidnapping has been
claimed by an organization calling itself the
"Islamic Resistance Movement - Al-Numan [also
written as al-Noaman] Brigade". The same group had
kidnapped in September last year a Turkish truck
driver and demanded that all operations of Turkish
companies in support of the US occupation troops
should stop. He was subsequently released. Nothing
much is known about the leadership of this group
and its past background.
A communique
issued on December 10 last year by what was
described as the media platoon of the Islamic
Jihad Army of the Resistance Movement said:
People of the world! These words
come to you from those who up to the day of the
invasion were struggling to survive under the
sanctions imposed by the criminal regimes of the
US and Britain We are simple people who chose
principles over fear. We have suffered crimes
and sanctions, which we consider the true
weapons of mass destruction. Years and years of
agony and despair, while the condemned UN traded
with our oil revenues in the name of world
stability and peace. Over 2 million innocents
died waiting for a light at the end of a tunnel
that only ended with the occupation of our
country and the theft of our resources. After
the crimes of the administrations of the US and
Britain in Iraq , we have chosen our future. The
future of every resistance struggle ever in the
history of man. It is our duty, as well as our
right, to fight back the occupying forces, for
which their nations will be held morally and
economically responsible; for what their elected
governments have destroyed and stolen from our
land. We have not crossed the oceans and seas to
occupy Britain or the US nor are we responsible
for 9/11 [September 11, 2001].
These are
only a few of the lies that these criminals
present to cover their true plans for the
control of the energy resources of the world, in
face of a growing China and a strong unified
Europe. It is ironic that the Iraqis are to bear
the full force of this large and growing
conflict on behalf of the rest of this sleeping
world. Stop using the US dollar, use the euro or
a basket of currencies. Reduce or halt your
consumption of British and US products. Put an
end to Zionism before it ends the world. Educate
those in doubt of the true nature of this
conflict and do not believe their media, for
their casualties are far higher than they admit.
We only wish we had more cameras to show the
world their true defeat. The enemy is on the
run. They are in fear of a resistance movement
they cannot see nor predict. We now choose when,
where, and how to strike. And as our ancestors
drew the first sparks of civilization, we will
redefine the word "conquest". Today we write a
new chapter in the art of urban warfare. Know
that by helping the Iraqi people you are helping
yourselves, for tomorrow may bring the same
destruction to you. Helping the Iraqi people
does not mean dealing with the Americans for a
few contracts here and there. You must continue
to isolate their strategy. This conflict is no
longer considered a localized war. We will pin
them here in Iraq to drain their resources,
manpower, and their will to fight. We will make
them spend as much as they steal, if not more.
We will disrupt, then halt the flow of our
stolen oil, thus, rendering their plans useless.
A perusal of the communique
and the moderate language free of rhetoric used in
it would indicate that this movement may have more
to do with the Sunni resistance fighters than with
the foreign terrorists allied with al-Qaeda, the
language of whose communiques are very strong and
try to incite acts of terrorism. A joint article
titled "An Inventory of Iraqi Resistance Groups"
written by two Iraqi journalists, Samir Haddad and
Mazin Ghazi, and published on September 19, in a
Baghdad Arabic weekly journal called al-Zawra, of
the Iraqi Journalists Association, categorized the
various resistance and terrorist groups active in
Iraq as follows:
Sunni groups
fighting to end the US-led occupation, but not
necessarily for the return of the Ba'athist
regime:
The Iraqi National Islamic Resistance - the
"1920 Revolution Brigades". It came to notice
for the first time on July 16, 2003. It describes
its aim as to establish a liberated and
independent Iraqi state on an Islamic basis. It
has been active in the area west of Baghdad, in
the regions of Abu Ghraib, Khan Dari and Fallujah
and in the governorates of Ninwi, Diyali and
al-Anbar. Its statements claiming responsibility
for its operations are usually distributed at the
gates of mosques as people come out after prayers.
Among the successful operations for which it
claimed responsibility last year were the shooting
down of an American helicopter in the Abu Ghraib
region on August 1, 2004, by its al-Zubayr bin
al-Awwam Brigade and the shooting down of a
Chinook helicopter in the al-Nuaymiyah region,
near Fallujah, by the Martyr Nur-al-Din Brigade on
August 9.
The National Front for the Liberation of
Iraq, consisting of 10 resistance groups. It
started operating almost immediately after the
occupation of Baghdad by the Americans in April
2003, as if its members had been trained and
briefed on how to operate against the Americans
long before the US-led invasion of Iraq. Its
activities show that what was projected by the US
as the disintegration of Saddam Hussein's army was
actually a well-planned and well-executed
withering away of the army in order to be able to
operate as a guerilla force of a myriad secret
cells against the occupying troops. According to
the two Iraqi journalists, it consists of
nationalists and Islamists. It has been active in
Arbil and Karkuk in northern Iraq; in Fallujah,
Samarra and Tikrit in central Iraq, in the Basra
and Babil governorates in the south and in the
Diyali governorate in the east. However, according
to the journalists, it has not been as successful
in its operations as the 1920 Revolution Brigades.
The Iraqi Resistance
Islamic Front - JAMI . It
came to notice for the first time on May 30, 2004.
It claims to be fighting against the American
occupiers and Jewish conspiracies in Iraq. Mainly
active in the governorates of Ninwi and Diyali.
According to statements issued by the front,
JAMI's military wings, called the Salah-al-Din and
Sayf-Allah al-Maslul Brigades, have carried out
dozens of operations against the US occupation
forces. Among the operations for which it has
claimed credit are the shelling of the occupation
command headquarters and the semi-daily shelling
of Mosul airport. According to the Iraqi
journalists, its targets are members of the US
intelligence and it has killed many of them in the
al-Faysaliyah area in Mosul, and also in the
governorate of Diyali, where the front's
al-Rantisi Brigade sniped a US soldier and used
mortars to shell al-Faris airport.
Other small factions. Their activities
are sporadic. Examples: (1)The Hamzah
Faction. A Sunni group that appeared for the
first time on October 10, 2003, in Fallujah and
called for the release of a local sheikh known as
Sheikh Jamal Nidal, who was arrested by the US
forces. (2)The Iraqi Liberation Army. It
came to notice on July 15, 2003. It warned foreign
countries against sending troops to Iraq and
threatened to attack them. (3)The Awakening and
Holy War Group. It has been active in
Fallujah. It filmed an operation on videotape and
sent the tape to Iranian television on July 7,
2003. On the tape, it described Saddam Hussein and
the US as two sides of the same coin. (4)The
White Banners. It, too, was critical of
Saddam, as well as the US. It claimed to be
operating in association with two other groups
calling themselves the Muslim Youths and
Muhammad's Army. Surprisingly, it criticized the
bombing of the Jordanian Embassy in Baghdad for
reasons which were not clear. (5)Al-Haqq
Army. It is also critical of the US, as well
as of Saddam.
Ba'athist
organizations fighting for the return of the
Ba'athist regime
They do not carry out
any military operations of their own. Instead,
they provide support services to other Sunni
groups, such as supply of funds, arms and
ammunition, sanctuaries etc. Examples:
(1)Al-Awdah (The Return). It is active in
northern Iraq - Samarra, Tikrit, Al-Dur and Mosul.
It reportedly consists of members of the former
intelligence apparatus. (2)Saddam's
Fedayeen. No longer active. Its members are
reported to have joined other groups, such as the
September 11 Revolutionary Group and the Serpent's
Head Movement.
Shi'ite organizations
opposing US occupation
The Al-Mehdi Army of Muqtada al-Sadr,
which has not been active of late.
The Imam Ali bin Abi-Talib Jihadi
Brigade. This group appeared for the
first time on October 12, 2003. It threatened to
carry out militant operations against countries
sending troops to Iraq to assist US troops. It
also threatened to assassinate all the members of
the Interim Governing Council and any Iraqi
cooperating with the coalition forces. It also
announced that Najaf and Karbala were the
battlegrounds in which it would target US forces.
Not very active. More rhetoric than action.
Groups that focus on
kidnappings
The more active of these
groups are: (1)The Assadullah Brigade.
Among its prominent operations of 2004 was the
kidnapping in July of Muhammad Mamduh Hilmi Qutb,
an Egyptian diplomat, in protest against an
Egyptian government offer of security training
facilities to the interim Iraqi government. He was
released after a week. (2) The Islamic
Retaliation Movement. It kidnapped a US Marine
of Lebanese origin, Wasif Ali Hassun, on July 19,
2004, and then released him. There has since been
some doubt about the genuineness of this
kidnapping and this organization: there have been
allegations that the Marine stage-managed his own
kidnapping. (3)The Islamic Anger Brigade.
It kidnapped 15 Lebanese allegedly working for the
Americans in June 2004, killed one of them and
released the others. (4) The Khalid bin
al-Walid Brigade and the Iraqi Martyrs'
Brigade. They are believed to be the ones who
kidnapped Italian journalist Enzo Bladoni in
August 2004 and killed him. (5) The Black
Banner Group of the Secret Islamic Army. It
kidnapped three Indians, two Kenyans and an
Egyptian working for a Kuwaiti company operating
in Iraq. The aim was to compel the company to stop
its activities in Iraq. The hostages were later
released.
Pro-al-Qaeda
groups largely consisting of foreigners and led by
foreigners.
They indulge in acts
of terrorism not only against American troops, but
also against Iraqis collaborating with them.
The al-Tawhid wa al-Jihad
Group. It is led by Abu Musab
al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian. It is now called Qaeda't
al-Jihad. It identifies itself as the al-Qaeda of
Iraq. Believed to have been responsible for the
kidnapping and murder of Nicholas Berg, an
American national, in May 2004. It also kidnapped
and killed a South Korean working for a South
Korean company under contract with the US Army in
Iraq.
The Islamic Army in
Iraq. It kidnapped the Iranian
consul in Baghdad, Feredion Jahani, and two French
journalists, Georges Malbrunot and Christian
Chesnot. They were subsequently released.
The Jaish Ansar
al-Sunnah. It kidnapped 12 Nepalese
on August 23, 2004, and subsequently killed them.
It also reportedly organized the suicide attack
inside the improvised dining hall of American
troops in Mosul in December. It is led by another
Jordanian, Abu Abdullah al-Hassan bin Mahmud.
The total number of hostages killed so far
is: two Italians, two US nationals, two
Pakistanis, one Egyptian, one Turk, one Lebanese,
one Bulgarian, one South Korean and 12
Nepalese.
The two Iraqi journalists
wrote of the indigenous resistance groups not
associated with pro-al-Qaeda terrorist
organizations as follows:
After the fall of Baghdad into the
hands of the Anglo-American occupation on April
9, 2003, as a natural reaction, several sectors
of Iraqi society confronted the occupation.
Resistance cells were formed, the majority of
which were of Islamic Sunni and pan-Arab
tendencies. These cells started in the shape of
scattered groups, without a unifying bond to
bind them together. These groups and small cells
started to grow gradually, until they matured to
some extent and acquired a clear personality
that had its own political and military weight.
Then they started combining themselves into
larger groups. The majority of these groups do
not know their leadership, the sources of their
financing, or who provides them with weapons.
However, the large number of weapons, which the
Saddam Hussein regime left behind, are
undoubtedly one of the main sources for arming
these groups. Their intellectual tendencies are
usually described as a mixture of Islamic and
pan-Arab ideas that agree on the need to put an
end to the US presence in Iraq.
An analysis of the various
incidents in Iraq last year would indicate that
while most of the targeted attacks with hand-held
weapons, mortars, explosives, etc, on the American
and other coalition troops were apparently carried
out by the Iraqi resistance groups, most of the
suicide attacks, which targeted Iraqi policemen,
national guards and other government servants
collaborating with the Americans, were carried out
by the pro-al-Qaeda terrorist organizations.
Are the two cooperating presently? If so,
is there a common command and control? Possibly
yes, but the evidence is not yet conclusive.
B Raman is additional secretary
(retired), cabinet secretariat, government of
India, New Delhi, and, presently, director,
Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai, and,
distinguished fellow and convener, Observer
Research Foundation, Chennai Chapter. Email: corde@vsnl.com
)
(Copyright B Raman)
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