Al-Qaeda in Iraq
Tanzim Qaidat al-Jihad fi Bilad al-Rafidayn[9] (Arabic: تنظيم قاعدة الجهاد في بلاد الرافدين, romanized: tanẓīm qā‘idat al-jihād fī bilād ar-rāfidayn, lit. 'Organization of Jihad's Base in the land of two rivers'), more commonly known as Al-Qaeda in Iraq[1][10][11] (Arabic: القاعدة في العراق, romanized: al-Qā'idah fī al-ʿIrāq, abbr. AQI), was a Salafi jihadist organization[2] affiliated with Al-Qaeda. It was founded on 17 October 2004,[1] and was led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and Abu Ayyub al-Masri until its disbandment on 15 October 2006.
Al-Qaeda in Iraq
(Organization of Jihad's Base in the land of two rivers)
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi † (17 October 2004 – 7 June 2006)
Abu Ayyub al-Masri † (7 June 2006 – 15 October 2006)
Omar Husayn Hadid al-Muhammadi † (November 2004)
17 October 2004[1] – 15 October 2006
Al-Qaeda Mujahideen Shura Council (from January 2006)
The group was started as Jama'at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad in 1999. In 2004 it pledged allegiance to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda. Under the leadership of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, AQI was engaged in various militant activities during the early stages of the Iraqi insurgency, with the objective of expelling the U.S.-led coalition and establishing an Islamic state in Iraq. In January 2006, AQI and seven other Sunni guerrilla groups formed the Mujahideen Shura Council (MSC), which on 15 October 2006 disbanded to form the "Islamic State of Iraq."
Origins[edit]
The group was founded by Jordanian national Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in 1999 under the name Jama'at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad (Arabic: جماعة التوحيد والجهاد, lit. 'Congregation of Monotheism and Jihad'). The group is believed to have started bomb attacks in Iraq as of August 2003, five months after the 2003 invasion of Iraq and the Iraq War, targeting UN representatives, Iraqi Shiite institutions, the Jordanian embassy, provisional Iraqi government institutions. After it pledged allegiance to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network in October 2004, its official name became Tanzim Qaidat al-Jihad fi Bilad al-Rafidayn.[1][10][12][13]
Leadership[edit]
On 7 June 2006, the leader, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, and his spiritual adviser Abu Abdul Rahman, were both killed by a U.S. airstrike with two 500 lb (230 kg) bombs on a safe house near Baqubah. The group's leadership was then assumed by the Egyptian militant Abu Ayyub al-Masri, also known as Abu Hamza al-Muhajir.[14]
Purpose[edit]
In a letter to al-Zarqawi in July 2005, Al-Qaeda's Ayman al-Zawahiri outlined a four-stage plan beginning with taking control of Iraq. Step 1: expulsion of US forces from Iraq. Step 2: establishing in Iraq an Islamic authority—a caliphate. Step 3: "the jihad wave" should be extended to "the secular countries neighbouring Iraq". Step 4: "the clash with Israel".[15][16]
U.S. fighting Al-Qaeda in Iraq[edit]
In November 2004, al-Zarqawi's network was the main target of the US Operation Phantom Fury in Fallujah, but its leadership managed to escape the American siege and subsequent storming of the city.
On 7 June 2006, al-Zarqawi and his spiritual adviser Sheik Abd-Al-Rahman, were both killed by a U.S. airstrike with two 500 lb (230 kg) bombs on a safe house near Baqubah.
The group's leadership was then assumed by Abu Ayyub al-Masri, also known as Abu Hamza al-Muhajir.[14]
Criticisms from al-Zawahiri[edit]
U.S. intelligence in October 2005 published an intercepted letter purportedly from Ayman al-Zawahiri questioning AQI's tactic of indiscriminately attacking Shias in Iraq.[58]
In a video that appeared in December 2007, al-Zawahiri defended AQI, but distanced himself from the crimes against civilians committed by "hypocrites and traitors" that he said existed among its ranks.[59]
Operations outside Iraq and other activities[edit]
On 3 December 2004, AQI attempted unsuccessfully to blow up an Iraqi–Jordanian border crossing. In 2006 a Jordanian court sentenced al-Zarqawi and two of his associates to death in absentia for their involvement in the plot.[60] AQI claimed to have carried out three attacks outside Iraq in 2005. In the most deadly, suicide bombs killed 60 people in Amman, Jordan on 9 November 2005.[61] They claimed responsibility for the rocket attacks which narrowly missed the American naval ships USS Kearsarge and USS Ashland in Jordan, and also targeted the city of Eilat in Israel, and for the firing of several rockets into Israel from Lebanon in December 2005.[15] The affiliated groups were linked to regional attacks outside Iraq which were consistent with their stated plan, one example being the 2005 Sharm El Sheikh bombings in Egypt, which killed 88 people, many of them foreign tourists.
The Lebanese-Palestinian militant group Fatah al-Islam, which was defeated by Lebanese government forces during the 2007 Lebanon conflict, was linked to AQI and led by al-Zarqawi's former companion who had fought alongside him in Iraq.[62] The group may have been linked to the little-known group called "Tawhid and Jihad in Syria",[63] and may have influenced the Palestinian militant group in Gaza called Jahafil Al-Tawhid Wal-Jihad fi Filastin.[64]