Jama'at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad

Jama'at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad
Jama'at al-Tawhid wal Jihad members with Jack Hensley and with the group's banner in the background.
Leaders	Abu Musab al-Zarqawi
Dates of operation	2003-2004
Headquarters	Fallujah
Active regions	Iraq
Opponents	Multinational force in Iraq, Iraq (Iraqi Security Forces, Kurdish and Shia militias, Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, United Nations
Battles and wars	Iraqi insurgency

Jama'at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad (Template:Lang-ar, Unification (Monotheism) and the Holy Struggle Group) was a radical Salafi militant group in the Sunni Iraqi insurgency which was led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.[2]

Foreign fighters were widely thought to play a key role in the decentralized network[3] (Zarqawi himself was Jordanian Palestinian), although some analysts say it may have also had a considerable Iraqi membership.[4] Although many of foreign fighters were not the group members, once in Iraq they became dependent on Zarqawi's local contacts.[5]

In 2004, following the alleged October 17 2004 al-Zarqawi's pledge of allegiance to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network on unnamed and unreferenced Islamic websites [6], the group allegedly gradually became known as Tenzeem Qa'adah al-Jihad fi Bilad al-Rafidayn (unofficially also known as "al-Qaeda in Iraq")[7] In Syria, JTJ also inspired the group called "Tawhid and Jihad in Syria".[8]

Name

This group's name, which is usually abbreviated as JTJ[9] or most often shortened to Tawhid and Jihad[10], Tawhid wal-Jihad[11] and sometimes Tawhid al-Jihad[12] (or just Al Tawhid or Tawhid), purposely contrasted the strict monotheism of Islam with the "God in three persons" of the Christian Trinity, which it saw as polytheism.

Origins

Jama'at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad was started by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who himself was never Al Qaeda, other foreigners who are alleged to be Al-Qaeda members, and local, mostly Kurdish sympathizers. Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was a Jordanian who had traveled to Afghanistan to fight in the Soviet-Afghan War, but had arrived after the departure of the Soviet troops. Instead he busied himself with reporting on the fighting of others. After a trip home, he eventually returned to Afghanistan, running an Islamic militant training camp near Herat in Afghanistan. Zarqawi started the network originally with a focus on overthrowing the Jordanian government, which he considered to be un-Islamic and made up of "hypocrites". Zarqawi comes from a school of militant Sunni Islamist and Wahhabi thought, which advocates a return to the laws and practices of the Muslim community that existed at the time of the death of the Prophet Muhammad in the 7th century. After spending five years in a Jordanian prison for attempting to overthrow the government, Zarqawi later left the country, traveling to Afghanistan where he became the leader of his own terrorist training camp near Herat. Eventually, Zarqawi 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 US and Jordan. Following the US-led invasion of Afghanistan, it is believed that Zarqawi moved westward into Iraq, where he may have received medical treatment in Baghdad for an injured leg. It is believed that he developed extensive ties in Iraq with Ansar al-Islam, a Kurdish Islamist militant group that was based in the extreme northeast of the country. Both the BBC in July 2002 [13]and the Canadian Institute of Strategic Studies, in a published paper in April 2003, claimed Ansar had ties to Iraqi Intelligence. Given the authoritarian nature of Saddam Hussein's government, it is unlikely he would not have known and approved of this collaboration. Saddam's motivation would have been to use Ansar as a surrogate force to repress the Kurds (who wanted a "free Kurdistan" in Northern Iraq/Southern Turkey).[14] Following the U.S-led invasion of Iraq, JTJ was developed as a militant network composed of foreign fighters, remnants of Ansar al-Islam, and indigenous Kurdish Sunni group to resist the coalition occupation forces and their Iraqi allies. The group's spiritual advisor was Abu Anas al-Shami. They are well known for their savage, horrid attacks against Iraqi Shittes.

Goals

The stated goals of JTJ were to force a withdrawal of U.S-led forces from Iraq, topple the Iraqi interim government and assassinate collaborators with the "occupation," marginalize the Shiite Muslim population and defeat its militias, and to subsequently establish a pure Sunni Islamic state. Presumably, if and when those goals are achieved, the global Jihad would continue to establish a pan-Islamic state and remove Western influence from the Muslim world.

Tactics

File:Eugene armstrong.JPG

Same group, same banner this time with Eugene Armstrong in orange, seated, before his decapitation. He is one of over 150 American contractors who have died in Iraq since 2003 [1].

File:Hostage kim.jpg

Jama'at al-Tawhid wa'l Jihad members with Kim Sun-il giving Korea 24 hours to withdraw Korean troops out of Iraq .

JTJ differed from other Iraqi insurgent groups considerably in its tactics. Rather than just using conventional weapons and guerrilla tactics, it has relied heavily on suicide bombings, mostly with vehicles, targeting a wide variety of groups but most especially Iraqi civilians, Iraqi Security Forces and those facilitating the occupation. U.S and coalition forces, the United Nations, foreign civilians, humanitarian organizations, Iraqi Shiite and Kurdish political and religious figures, Iraqi police and security forces, and Iraqi interim officials have also been targeted. They have assassinated several leading Iraqi politicians.[15]

For months, it appeared as though two separate wars were being conducted in Iraq. One was a militant terrorist campaign, largely conducted by foreign jihadis, of high-profile suicide bombings, assassinations, and kidnappings. The other was a guerrilla war being conducted by nationalist indigenous Sunni Islamics, and disenfranchised former Ba'ath Party members against the American occupation. Recently, as Zarqawi's network has taken root and grown in Iraq and as the insurgency has become more radicalized and religiously motivated, the distinction between the two has reduced. The June 24 offensive, which combined guerrilla warfare, and conventional tactics and in which a number of groups operating under the Zarqawi umbrella participated, was the most obvious indication of this shift. Militants in this group also have been known to operate with other insurgents in the city Samarra, where they openly patrolled, enforcing Sharia law, and distributing audiotapes of the Qur'an before a U.S-led offensive on the city in the beginning of October forced them underground again.

Zarqawi's militants have been known to use a wide variety of other tactics, however, including targeted assassinations and kidnappings, the planting of improvised explosive devices, mortar attacks, and beginning in a late June 2004 offensive urban guerilla-style attacks using rocket-propelled grenades and small arms. TWJ was also known for the brutal beheadings of foreign and Iraqi hostages, which were then distributed on the Internet in video footage attributed to the group.[16]

JTJ cites various texts from the Qur'an and the Sunnah (traditions) of the prophet Muhammad that they perceive to support their tactics. They refer to the tradition of the prophet Muhammad where he said to the people of Makkah when conquering them, "By the one in whose hand the soul of Muhammad is in, I came to you with slaughter" narrated in the books of Hadith (traditions). They also quote the prophet Muhammad 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." as well as many verses of the Qur'an calling Muslims to fight invading non-Muslims and even behead them, such where Allah says in the Qur'an, "when you meet the non-Muslim (enemies in battle) strike their necks."

Activities

Attacks

Canal Hotel after TWJ attack.

TWJ took responisbility or was blamed for some of the biggest early insurgent attacks, including:

• August 7 2003: Jordanian embassy bombing in Baghdad which killed 17 and injured at least 40.[17]
• August 19 2003: Canal Hotel bombing that killed Sérgio Vieira de Mello and 22 others at the UN headquarters in Baghdad. More than 100 were injured.[18][19]
• August 29 2003: Imam Ali Mosque bombing in Najaf that killed Ayatollah Sayed Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim and more than 85 others. More than 500 were injured.[20][21]
• November 12, 2003: The truck bombing in Nasiriyah which killed 17 Italian paramilitary policemen and 10 civilians and injured at least 100.[22]
• March 2 2004: Series of bombings in Baghdad and Karbala that killed some 178 people and wounded at least 500 during the Day of Ashura.[23]
• April 19 2004: Failed plot to explode chemical bombs in Amman, Jordan, said to be financed by Zarqawi's network.[24]
• April 24 2004: In a statement published by on the Muntada al-Ansar Islamist web site, Zarqawi took responsibility for suicide boat bombings of the oil pumping stations in the Persian Gulf.
• May 18 2004: Car bomb assassinated Iraqi Governing Council president Ezzedine Salim in Baghdad.[25]
• June 18 2004: The suicide car bombing in Baghdad that killed 35 civilians, and wounded 145.[26]
• September 14 2004: Car bomb killed 47 and injured nearly 100 more civilians and police recruits on Haifa Street in Baghdad.[27][28]

TWJ claimed credit for a number of attacks targeting Coalition and Iraqi forces, including the October 2004 massacre of 49 unarmed Iraqi National Guard recruits,[29] and humanitarian aid agency targets such as the Red Cross. The group conducted numerous attacks against U.S. military personnel and Iraqi infrastructure throughout 2004, including suicide attacks inside the Green Zone perimeter in Baghdad.[30]

Foreign hostages

File:Hostage kim.jpg

JTJ members with Kim Sun-il giving Korea 24 hours to withdraw Korean troops out of Iraq.

• Nick Berg, American civilian beheaded on May 7 2004
• Murat Yuce, Turkish civilian shot dead on August 2
• Kim Sun-il, South Korean civilian executed on June 22 2004
• Georgi Lazov and Ivaylo Kepov, Bulgarian civilians beheaded on July 8 2004[31]
• Durmus Kumdereli, Turkish civilian beheaded on September 13 2004 [32]
• Eugene Armstrong, American civilian beheaded on September 20 2004
• Jack Hensley, American civilian beheaded on September 21 2004
• Kenneth Bigley, British civilian beheaded on October 7 2004[33]

See also

• Abu Anas al-Shami
• Abu Ayyub al-Masri
• Abu Omar al-Kurdi
• Haifa Street helicopter incident
• Terrorism in Iraq

External links

• Purported Zarqawi letter Coalition Provisional Authority