Counterterrorism Blog

In a rather stunning development, the Iraqi Islamic militant faction known as Asaeb al-Iraq al-Jihadiya (a.k.a. "the Iraqi Jihad Union") has issued a new statement dated October 5 suddenly accusing Al-Qaida's "Islamic State of Iraq" of deliberately killing its fighters in Diyala province and mutilating their bodies: "To make things worse, they dug up their bodies from the graves, further mutilated them, beheaded them, and showed them off from their vehicles while driving through the towns. [The ISI] even killed our men’s wives and children." An English translation of the communique is now available for download from the NEFA Foundation website.

Though this is actually the second time this week that similar charges have been leveled at Al-Qaida in Iraq by fellow Sunni insurgents, the source of the latest set of allegations--Asaeb al-Iraq al-Jihadiya--is most unusual. Less than three months ago, the very same organization was openly working in operational partnership with Al-Qaida, and was even rumored to be considering merging its forces with Al-Qaida's "Islamic State." In my report for NEFA "State of the Sunni Insurgency in Iraq: August 2007", I wrote the following concerning Asaeb al-Iraq al-Jihadiya and its cozy past relationship with Al-Qaida:

The Iraqi Jihad Union (in Arabic, “Asaeb al-Iraq al-Jihadiya”) was initially formed from a patchwork “nucleus of cells” that coalesced together shortly after “the fall of our former regime and the invasion of the infidel and crusader forces.” The cells included both “scholars of Shariah” and other native Iraqis with more practical “military experience.” The Jihad Union continues to portray itself as “one of the first [insurgent organizations] to emerge following the… occupation.” According to a founding statement issued in January 2004, “after choosing a name and putting faith in Allah, the soldiers of Allah began to collect money and weapons, and the number of recruits… grew.” The Iraqi Jihad Union began its operations in far western Iraq and gradually expanded eastward over time to the Iraqi capital Baghdad. Over the last four years, the organization has become decidedly more fundamentalist in its public platform. The group even changed the design of its own logo, removing the three-starred Iraqi national flag and replacing it with the generic black flag of Islam. It has insisted that it is “not funded by any party, nation, or organization, internal or external.”

Nonetheless, until mid-2007, the Iraqi Jihad Union still appeared to be a fairly mainstream Sunni insurgent group. When the Iraqi government issued an arrest warrant for Shaykh Dr. Harith al-Dari—the uncle of the former leader of the 1920 Revolution Brigades and a widely-known enemy of Al-Qaida’s network in Iraq—the Jihad Union issued a statement in solidarity with al-Dari, condemning the “cowardly, failed warrant” and calling him “righteous” and “a great figure from the Sunni community.” This is the very same Dr. Harith al-Dari who, in September 2005, openly labeled Al-Qaida leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi “dangerous” and blamed him for “causing damage to the image of the jihad.”

In February 2007, the “Islamic State of Iraq” offered a first hint that forces within the Jihad Union were moving slowly in the direction of Al-Qaida. A statement issued by the ISI claimed that “dozens of brigades and thousands of fighters” from various jihadi organizations had sworn allegiance to Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, including the Ansar al-Sunnah Army and the Iraqi Jihad Union. When conflicting Arabic-language news reports suggested that the Jihad Union was actually fighting against Al-Qaida, the former issued a communiqué maintaining, “we have no disagreement with any group of our righteous mujahideen brothers.” In April 2007, users on Al-Qaida-sponsored Internet news forums circulated another communiqué purporting to originate from the Iraqi Jihad Union’s Shariah Council (though not published through its usual channels). The letter was highly critical of the IAI’s decision to form the opposition Reformation and Jihad Front. Though it gently scolded the ISI to demonstrate “restraint and patience,” the Jihad Union also directly called upon the IAI “to apologize to our brothers from the Islamic State of Iraq.” Arguably the most convincing sign of its ideological drift, the Iraqi Jihad Union has claimed at least seven joint operations in conjunction with fighters from Al-Qaida’s “Islamic State of Iraq” between April and July 2007: