The Patchwork Insurgent Network Behind Recent Clashes in Ramadi

By Evan Kohlmann

Yesterday, the U.S. military conceded that the deteriorating situation in the restive Sunni Iraqi town of Ramadi required a "significant number" of additional coalition troops to be dispatched as reinforcements. According to the military, there has been intense, nearly constant fighting in the region surrounding Ramadi since at least May 7. Interestingly, a variety of different insurgent and extremist groups are boasting of their roles in waging these "battles" in Ramadi with U.S. and Iraqi government forces--among them:

- The Al-Fatihin Army--a breakaway faction of the influential Islamic Army in Iraq (IAI)--has claimed credit for IED detonations targeting two U.S. Humvees, nearly half a dozen sniper attacks on American soldiers, and a series of armed assaults on Iraqi goverment checkpoints in Ramadi.
- The Ansar al-Sunnah Army--a pro-Bin Laden movement based in northeastern Iraq believed to have been formed from the remnants of the terrorist group Ansar al-Islam--has claimed responsibility for two IED attacks on U.S. minesweepers in the region and an additional ambush with RPGs and machine guns on a U.S. Humvee.
- The Mujahideen Army--a Sunni Iraqi insurgent group that has waffled between, at times, threatening to kill Danish cartoonists and then later openly condemning "ethnic separatism and extremism"--has claimed a handful of sniper attacks on U.S. forces and the "destruction" of a U.S. Humvee in Ramadi.
- The Mujahideen Shura Council (MSC)--the militant umbrella network formed in Iraq by Al-Qaida and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi--has issued a new statement announcing "victories" in clashes with U.S. and Iraqi forces in Ramadi:

"Your brothers from the Military Wing of the Mujahideen Shura Council... on Wednesday May 17, 2006, began a new battle... Your brothers initiated clashes with the crusader enemy and its pagan guard stooges with rocket launchers and light weapons near the intelligence complex... in Ramadi, and many of them were either killed or wounded. After that, your brothers laid down cover fire in order to enable their martyr brother Abu Dujana al-Muhajir to enter one of the buildings [in the complex] used as an enemy barracks with his GMC Suburban vehicle. In front of the building, there were three Humvees carrying passengers from the pagan guard and the crusader army. Your brother detonated his vehicle packed with explosives in the midst of them. Their bodies were scattered into pieces, their vehicles were set ablaze, and the building collapsed on the heads of the crusaders and the apostates... killing at least thirty five enemies and destroying three vehicles. Finally, the mujahideen were able to safely withdraw while chanting, 'Allahu Akhbar!'"

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