(NBC/NEFA) - Voices From the Iraqi Insurgency: Exclusive Interviews with Hamas al-Iraq and the Al-Rashideen Army

By Evan Kohlmann

(See also - MSNBC Deep Background: "Exclusive Interviews with Iraqi Insurgents")

In an effort to help Americans better understand the evolving dynamics behind the Sunni insurgency in Iraq, I have begun conducting a series of exclusive interviews with prominent Sunni insurgent organizations. The first groups to accept my invitation were Hamas al-Iraq and the Al-Rashideen Army--arguably two of the most influential Sunni insurgent factions fighting in Iraq.

Both groups have insisted that they are part of a unified Sunni effort to force a U.S. military withdrawal that includes all major organizations “except Al-Qaida, and everyone has fought against them because we see this group as promoting a particular agenda that does not fit with the realities of Iraqi society.” When asked for an assessment of Al-Qaida's top leaders in Iraq, Abu Omar al-Baghdadi and Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, a spokesman for "Hamas al-Iraq" responded, “If you mean knowing those two persons by their names only, the answer is yes as everyone else knows. However, whatever is the truth behind them or about them, we do not know. If you have any information about them, then we hope you will be able to share it with us.” Likewise, a representative from the "Al-Rashideen Army" openly mocked the repeated, insistent demands by Al-Qaida's Deputy Commander Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri for Sunni insurgents to join under the banner of Al-Qaida: “There is a problem in Tibet for China—is it possible for me to prescribe the solutions for their problem? We are a people in this region for 6000 years before Christ, end[ing] with Islam, and we are fully capable of rolling and managing our own affairs. We do not need others to tell us what to do.”

As for Abu Omar al-Baghdadi's offer of a truce last month to other Sunni insurgent groups, the Al-Rashideen Army had this to say: “We have never heard of it, and we do not credit any audio recordings, our intelligence rather does not recognize audio recordings, [in order] to take action or make decisions.”

- Transcript of Interview with Hamas al-Iraq
- Transcript of Interview with the Al-Rashideen Army

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