Posted on 06/28/2008 9:08:24 PM PDT by forkinsocket
The insurgent group Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia claimed responsibility on Saturday for a suicide bombing in Anbar Province that killed 20 Iraqis and three American marines on Thursday.
In a communiqué posted on jihadi Web sites and translated by the SITE Institute monitoring group, the insurgents declared “open war” on members of Sunni Awakening groups in Anbar that have been recruited by the United States to fight Islamic extremists. The statement condemned Awakening members for fighting insurgents and for standing by the “filthy crusaders,” meaning the United States and the Shiite-led Iraqi government.
Local police officers and tribal leaders said the suicide bomber who struck Thursday wore military-style clothing and was mistaken for a member of the security forces attending a meeting of sheiks involved with the Awakening movement in the area.
Some people said the bomber had at one time been part of an Awakening group. But it is unclear whether he joined the group under false pretenses to spy for Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, or had later become estranged.
The bombing killed leaders of the Awakening movement in Garma, a town near Falluja that was once supportive of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, a homegrown Sunni extremist group. Garma’s tribes turned against the militants last year.
Elsewhere, 25 bodies were found near Lake Tharthar in Samarra, a Sunni area of central Iraq where Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia has been active. Six of the bodies were women, and all showed signs of torture and had been shot from a distance, said Maj. Muthanna Shakir Mahmoud, a police commander in Samarra. The bodies had been there for about four months, he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
FINALLY! Some bad news for the Slimes to print! Nothing from them for months — they must be in severe withdrawal by now.
Where is this “Mesopotamia.” I’m sure glad we haven’t gotten ourselves into a war there. That would be awful.
Michael Moore should be proud of his “freedom fighters”.
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