Zarqawi Denies the Arrests of His Lieutenants, Declares the Formation of an All-Iraqi Suicide Squad … More below:
Meanwhile, “The war in Iraq finally hit home when my 3-year-old cousin Ahmed was seriously injured in a car-bomb attack,” writes Alternet’s Alya Shakir. … More below:
And former hostage Douglas Wood has sold his story to an Australian TV program for $400,000. (However, the runaway bride, through uber-agent Judith Regan, got $500,000 from NBC News’s (cough) Katie Couric people, who NEVER pay for news interviews. Just so you know.)
From Evan Kohlmann, terrorism expert and contributor to the Counterterrorism Blog:
Al-Qaida’s Jihad Committee in Iraq–led by wanted Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi–has officially denied recent claims that assistants loyal to Zarqawi have been arrested in Mosul and in Madrid, Spain. The statements came in the wake of an announcement last week by the Iraqi government concerning the capture of senior Al-Qaida leader Abu Talha al-Mosuli (a.k.a. Mohammed Khalaf Shakar). Al-Qaida’s Committee in Iraq has also declared the formation of an all-Iraqi suicide brigade–known as the Al-Ansar Martyrs Brigade–that was created as a branch of another Al-Qaida unit known as the Al-Baraa bin Malik Brigade.
Kohlmann links to three PDF files that are English translations of the documents c/o Globalterroralert.com:
- June 17 denial of the capture of assistants to al-Zarqawi
- June 21 denial of the capture of assistants to al-Zarqawi
- June 21 formation of the Al-Ansar Martyrs Brigade in Iraq
I can’t copy the documents without a password, so you’ll have to click above to view the contents.
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More from Alternet’s Alya Shakir:
… On Tuesday evening, I received a phone call from an aunt in Baghdad informing me that her 3-year-old son, my cousin Ahmed, had been seriously injured in a car-bomb attack in Baghdad. The crackling line and two-second delay did not hide the grief in her voice, nor my unenviable inability to say anything comforting.
My family often expresses gratitude that all of us survived three wars, one of which lasted eight years and saw all the family’s adult males conscripted. It was only after the last of these that my disabled grandfather and grandmother were robbed and beaten in their home, and forced to leave a beloved country for Jordan, where the government treats them like unwelcome (though paying) guests. …
