As American casualties mount in Iraq, so do questions about who is behind the guerrilla campaign. The list of suspects, which already includes Saddam Hussein loyalists, freelance Arab fighters and Iraqis angered by the U.S. occupation, is growing each day.Of course, the news is still bad, since that list has grown. Also from the article:
On Friday, a previously unknown group, the "Muslim Youths" movement, added its name, warning in a videotaped message broadcast on Arabic television that it would target any country that agrees to send peacekeeping troops to Iraq.
Deeper and deeper... meanwhile where is all that oil?
Read the AP article for yourself at SFGate.com.
From the Associated Press and :
As casualties mount, so do questions about who is behind Iraqi resistance
PAUL HAVEN, Associated Press Writer
(07-18) 12:25 PDT BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) --
As American casualties mount in Iraq, so do questions about who is behind the guerrilla campaign. The list of suspects, which already includes Saddam Hussein loyalists, freelance Arab fighters and Iraqis angered by the U.S. occupation, is growing each day.
On Friday, a previously unknown group, the "Muslim Youths" movement, added its name, warning in a videotaped message broadcast on Arabic television that it would target any country that agrees to send peacekeeping troops to Iraq.
More than 30 U.S. servicemen have been killed in hostile action since May 1, the day President Bush declared an end to major fighting, and the military says its forces are coming under fire on average 12 times a day.
Gen. John Abizaid, the new head of U.S. Central Command, termed the insurgency a "guerrilla-style" war this week, the first time a senior military official has acknowledged the nature of the insurrection.
L. Paul Bremer, the top American official in Iraq, has insisted the attacks are not centrally coordinated, and has described the perpetrators as mostly "dead-enders" -- Saddam Hussein loyalists from his feared Fedayeen paramilitary force and intelligence units left out in the cold since the U.S. ousted their benefactor in April.
Others are not so sure.
The U.S. takeover has turned Iraq's political reality on its head -- many Sunni Muslims are angry over the increased powers of the nation's Shiite majority, which holds the deciding votes on a new Governing Council and is set to assume a prominent national role for the first time. Even those happy to see Saddam go are not so happy with what they see taking his place.
Those sentiments were on display this week in Fallujah, a town in the restive "Sunni Triangle" where many are still loyal to Saddam. About 100 people marked the day, the anniversary of the 1968 revolution of Saddam's Baath party, by chanting "Saddam, we'll sacrifice our blood and soul for you."
Saddam loyalists have also distributed leaflets in the capital urging their countrymen not to cooperate with the Americans and warning those who do will be regarded as traitors. A voice purported to be Saddam's has issued audiotaped warnings, the latest Thursday, calling for holy war against U.S. occupiers. A U.S. intelligence official said the tape appeared to be authentic.
This week, American forces found a cache of about four tons of military explosives in central Iraq, a senior Pentagon official said. Troops found the stash of C-4 explosives about 30 miles southwest of Baghdad after being tipped by Iraqis, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Several shadowy groups besides the "Muslim Youths" have popped up in recent weeks to claim responsibility for attacks.
One, calling itself the "Islamic Armed Group of al-Qaida, Fallujah branch," went on Arab television channels Sunday to claim that it, not Saddam, was behind the recent bloodshed. It was the first time a group purporting to be linked to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network has claimed responsibility for attacks in Iraq.
"By God, not one of (Saddam's) followers carried out any of the Jihadi (holy war) operations like he claims," said an unidentified man dressed in a clerical robe and white turban, adding "our Mujahedeen brothers" are behind the attacks.
Another group, this one called "Wakefulness and Holy War," said it had carried out attacks in Fallujah, where tension has been high since U.S. soldiers shot and killed 20 Iraqi protesters in April. "Saddam and America are two faces of the same coin," the group said.
Then on Tuesday, an organization called "Liberating Iraq's Army," went on Al-Arabiya television to promise retribution for any country that sends peacekeeping troops. In a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, the group said peacekeepers would be attacked even if they were sent under a U.N. mandate. The same group claimed responsibility for the assassination Wednesday of the U.S.-appointed mayor of Hadithah.
Abizaid said there is evidence that non-Iraqi Islamic militant groups with at least a philosophical connection to al-Qaida may be involved in some of the violence.
"I don't know that I would say that Osama bin Laden has made an order that has been conveyed to people that has caused them to move into Iraq to kill us," Abizaid said this week. "But I do know that there are those that would sympathize with him that have moved into Iraq and are trying to kill us."
Other terror groups operating inside Iraq include Ansar al-Islam, an al-Qaida-linked organization whose camp in northern Iraq suffered devastating attacks from U.S. forces early in the war. Ansar al-Islam appears to be regrouping, possibly buoyed by members coming from Iran or elsewhere after fleeing during the fighting, Abizaid said.
But he said the "primary threat," is still from midlevel Baath party operatives loyal to Saddam.
Thousands of Arab fighters poured into the country ahead of the war, amid calls by radical groups to fight the Americans. Others may have slipped in recently.
"The way the borders are, it may be possible," said a senior U.S. military official in Baghdad, who spoke on condition of anonymity. He said attacks have become more "sophisticated" in recent weeks, a sign of at least some form of coordination.
Dia'a Rashwan, an expert on radical Islam at Egypt's Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, said he doubted al-Qaida was behind the daily mortar and shooting attacks, but might be in the planning stages of a larger-scale assault on U.S. forces in Iraq.
"They don't do small strikes," he said.
Whoever is behind the attacks, coalition officials say they won't deter the U.S. mission.
Bernard Kerik, a former New York police chief overseeing Iraq's Interior Ministry, said only a small number of those arrested have been foreigners and no link to al-Qaida has been established.
"Nobody has been identified as al-Qaida yet. Could they be out there? It's possible," he said. "The bottom line is, I don't care if they are al-Qaida, I don't care if they are Fedayeen, I don't care if they are Baathists. ... If they attack the coalition, or they attack the police, they are going to be arrested or they are going to be killed."©2003 Associated Press
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