Al-Duri Linked to Ansar al-Islam, AP
Laurie Mylroie
Wed, 29 Oct 2003 23:47:24 -0800
Official: Saddam Confidant Linked to Terror Group
Associated Press
Wednesday, October 29, 2003
WASHINGTON - A senior member of Saddam Hussein ousted government is believed
to be helping coordinate attacks on American forces with members of an Al
Qaeda-linked terrorist group, a senior defense official said Wednesday.
Two captured members of Ansar al-Islam have said Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri is
helping to coordinate their attacks, the official said, speaking on
condition of anonymity.
That information is the first solid evidence of links between remnants of
Saddam’s regime and the non-Iraqi fighters responsible for at least some of
the attacks on U.S. forces and their Iraqi allies, the official said.
Pentagon officials say Ansar al-Islam, which operated in northern Iraq
before its camp was destroyed during the war, poses one of the greatest
threats in Iraq. Military commanders have said they believe hundreds of
non-Iraqi fighters from Ansar have entered Iraq to fight the U.S.-led
occupation, many of them through neighboring Iran.
Al-Douri is No. 6 on the most-wanted list of 55 Iraqis and was vice chairman
of Saddam’s Revolutionary Command Council.
He was one of Saddam’s few longtime confidants and his daughter was married
to Saddam’s son, Uday, who was killed in a raid by U.S. forces in July.
NBC News first reported the al-Douri link to Ansar al-Islam Tuesday night.
Asked Wednesday about the report, Pentagon spokesman Larry Di Rita said he
did not know anything about it.
Attacks on American troops have surged this week to about 33 per day, up
from 26 per day last week and 15 per day in early September. A series of car
bombings in and near Baghdad this week killed more than three dozen people.
U.S. officials have been searching for months for suspected links between
Saddam loyalists and foreign fighters like Ansar members. President Bush and
other U.S. officials have said they believe the bombings in Baghdad Monday
were the work of Saddam loyalists, foreign fighters or both.
Pentagon officials say the Baghdad bombings — four explosions in different
parts of the city in less than an hour — show a level of sophistication
they had not seen before. Di Rita said the bombings indicated coordination
“at least at the regional level.”
The defense official who discussed the al-Douri link said he did not know if
the al-Douri-Ansar alliance was responsible for the Baghdad bombings. He
said military officials don’t know to what extent al-Douri was coordinating
attacks with Ansar.
Earlier this month, American forces captured a top associate of al-Douri in
the town of Baqouba north of Baghdad.
U.S. officials have said for at least two months they suspect al-Douri of
coordinating attacks on Americans but had not previously linked him to
Ansar.
U.S. officials say Ansar al-Islam has links to Al Qaeda and has experimented
with producing crude biological and chemical weapons. The group operated in
a small section of northern Iraq surrounded by Kurdish-controlled areas
which were outside Saddam’s control.
Kurdish officials have long alleged that Saddam’s government helped Ansar,
but U.S. officials have said they haven’t yet found definitive proof of
that.
I am going to publish a thread today calling for an internet war against AL Qaeda and other islamic terrorists in order to force the shut down of islmaic terrorists websites and forums by contacting in mass the internet companies that carries these website and many of these internet provider firms are right here in the US.
We are not fighting the islamic terrorist on the battlefield but for sure we can fight them on the internet, that the least we can do to serve America in this time of war.