The Iraqi resistance: 'Why we
fight' By Brian Conley and
Muhammad Zaher
BAGHDAD - Call them
terrorists, call them resistance fighters. By
whatever their name, they have their own reasons
for fighting the Americans in Iraq. Abu Ayoub, a
35-year-old living in Baghdad, is a member of the
Islamic Army. He spoke in the Adhamiya
neighborhood about why he joined the fight.
"When the occupation forces entered
Baghdad, they killed my brother in front of my
eyes. He was wounded and bleeding but the
occupation forces didn't allow me to save him.
When I tried to save him they began shooting at
me, and after a few minutes my brother died. After
that I swore to fight them to the death."
Many resistance groups have been
identified since the beginning of the war in March
2003. They range from the well-known Ansar
al-Sunna, first noticed in
northern Iraq after its members fled Afghanistan,
to smaller groups such as the Revenge Brigade
involved in the kidnapping of Jill Carroll,
correspondent with the Christian Science Monitor.
"I think 80% are from the Islamic
resistance, because Islam orders Muslims to fight
against the enemy and against everyone who came to
occupy our country," Ayoub said.
After his
brother was killed, friends just came up to
support him in his resistance fight, he said. "At
first I was fighting in a small group, because we
didn't trust many people to join with us. But now,
after three years fighting, we became part of the
Islamic Army. Now everything has become organized
- we make good plans before any attack."
There are some groups, both Sunni and
Shi'ite, who believe the time for violent
resistance had passed, Ayoub said. Sunni groups
such as the Iraqi Accordance Front, the Iraqi
Islamic Party and the Muslim Scholars Association
seem to be pushing for a political process, and
participated in the December elections.
But the Islamic Army would never negotiate
with the United States or the Iraqi government,
Abu Ayoub said. He believes negotiators with the
coalition and Iraqi government include only
resistance fighters from the Ba'ath Party. "The
Ba'ath resistance fights for Saddam, not for Islam
or for Iraq. We are against this. They aren't
representative of the Iraqi resistance."
Abu Ayoub believes the occupation cannot
be ended either by a political process or by other
peaceful means. Only Iraqis fighting back can
liberate Iraq, he said. "The occupation forces
will discover after this negotiation that nothing
will change. The resistance will grow more and
more until the end of occupation. They came by
force, and they will never leave, except by
force."
Ayoub said he was not allowed to
say how he joined the Islamic Army. But he was
willing to say a little about his organization.
"The Islamic Army is very big, and we fight all
over Iraq. We have groups everywhere in Iraq, but
I have no connection with other groups. Only our
leaders have connections between each other; this
is for our security."
Abu Ayoub said that
after he joined the Islamic Army it was much
easier to receive support such as guns. He said
there are "special people" whose work it is to
supply weapons. His duty is to use them to fight
the enemy, he said.
When asked why he was
fighting the US forces, he said: "I want you to
pose this question to the US forces, not to me.
They came from the other side of the world and
crossed the ocean to occupy my country. Bush and
Blair lied to all the world when they spoke about
weapons of mass destruction. All the world knew
very well their governments were lying, but no
country said 'no'. Most of the world supported
them to occupy my country."
Ayoub
dismisses claims by US President George W Bush,
closely parroted by British Prime Minister Tony
Blair, that their goal in Iraq is to establish
democracy and liberate the Iraqi people.
"They don't have credibility. They came to
Iraq for many reasons: to destroy Islam, steal
oil, save the east front of Israel, control the
Middle East and establish bases near Iran and
Russia. I want to ask them, 'Where is the
democracy?' Three years of occupation and the
Iraqi condition has gone from bad to worse."
Ayoub is not just angry with the coalition
forces. He believes it was wrong for Iraqis to
join the new army or police force. "They are not a
real army like the Iraqi army before the
occupation. The occupation forces built this new
army to protect them from resistance. I think any
honest Iraqi should not join this fake army."
The army is acting against the people, he
said. "You can see what they did in Fallujah. They
were like a hand of the occupation. They killed
many innocent people there, and they did that in
many other cities in Iraq, like Ramadi, Tal Afar,
Hit, Rawa and Haditha. Go there and see how many
children, old men and women were killed by the
Iraqi army's hand."
Abu Ayoub believes the
police should be called a militia. "Ninety-five
percent of them are Shi'ite and work with the Badr
militia, and they work for Iran's benefit. They
killed many Sunni people just because they were
Sunni, to create tensions between Sunni and
Shi'ite, and to make civil war."
But Ayoub
believes it is still not right to attack members
of the Iraqi army and police. "First we must
liberate Iraq from occupation forces, and then we
can judge each one of them who committed crimes."
There will be no civil war in Iraq if the
occupation retreats, Abu Ayoub said. "We will
control Iraq and push out all the militias and
Iraqi politicians who came on American tanks. Then
we will find many honest Iraqi politicians to lead
Iraq. But for now you can see how the Iraqi people
are between two hammers, the occupation and the
militia - or even the Iraqi government, because
they support them."
