A Word from the Islamic
Army
Brian Conley and Muhammad Zaher
BAGHDAD, May 16 (IPS) - Call them terrorists, call them resistance fighters.
A significant member of one such group spoke to IPS about why he joined.
Abu Ayoub, a 35-year-old living in Baghdad, is a member of the Islamic Army. He
spoke to IPS in the Adhamiya neighbourhood.
"When the occupation forces entered Baghdad, they killed my brother in front of
my eyes. He was wounded and bleeding but the occupation forces didn't allow me
to save him. When I tried to save him they began shooting at me and after a few
minutes my brother died. After that I swore to fight them to the death."
Many resistance groups have been identified since the beginning of the war in
March 2003. They range from the well-known Ansar al-Sunna, first noticed in
northern Iraq after its members fled Afghanistan, to smaller groups like the
Revenge Brigade involved in the kidnapping of Jill Carroll, correspondent with
the Christian Science Monitor..
"I think 80 percent are from the Islamic resistance, because Islam orders
Muslims to fight against the enemy and against everyone who came to occupy our
country," Ayoub said.
After his brother was killed, friends just came up to support him in his
resistance fight, he said. "At first I was fighting in a small group, because we
didn't trust many people to join with us. But now, after three years fighting,
we became part of Islamic Army. Now everything has become organised, we make
good plans before any attack."
There are some groups, both Sunni and Shia, who believe the time for violent
resistance has passed, Ayoub said. Sunni groups such as the Iraqi Accordance
Front, the Iraqi Islamic Party and the Muslim Scholars Association seem to be
pushing for a political process, and participated in the December elections.
But the Islamic Army will never negotiate with the United States or the Iraqi
government, Abu Ayoub told IPS. He believes negotiators with the coalition and
Iraqi government include only resistance fighters from the Ba'ath party.
"The Ba'ath resistance fight for Saddam, not for Islam or for Iraq. We are
against this. They aren't representative of the Iraqi resistance."
Abu Ayoub believes that the occupation cannot be ended either by a political
process or by other peaceful means. Only Iraqis fighting back can liberate Iraq,
he says.
"The occupation forces will discover after this negotiation that nothing will
change. The resistance will grow more and more till the end of occupation. They
came by force, and they will never leave, except by force."
Ayoub said he is not allowed to say how he joined the Islamic Army. But he was
willing to say a little about his organisation. "The Islamic army is very big
and we fight all over Iraq. We have groups everywhere in Iraq, but I have no
connection with other groups. Only our leaders have connections between each
other, this is for our security."
Abu Ayoub said that after he joined the Islamic Army it was much easier to
receive support such as guns. He told IPS there are "special people" whose work
it is to bring weapons. His duty is only to fight the enemy, he said.
When asked why he was fighting the U.S. forces, he said: "I want you to ask this
question to the U.S. forces, not to me. They came from the other side of the
world and crossed the ocean to occupy my country. Bush and Blair lied to all the
world when they spoke about weapons of mass destruction. All the world knew very
well their governments were lying, but no country said 'no'. Most of the world
supported them to occupy my country."
Ayoub dismisses claims by U.S. President George W. Bush parroted closely by
British Prime Minister Tony Blair that their goal in Iraq is to establish
democracy and liberate the Iraqi people.
"They don't have credibility, they came to Iraq for many reasons, to destroy
Islam, steal oil, save the east front of Israel, control the Middle East and
establish bases near Iran and Russia. I want to ask them, 'where is the
democracy?' Three years of occupation and Iraqi condition is from bad to worse."
Ayoub is not just angry with the coalition forces. He believes it was wrong for
Iraqis to join the new army or police force.
"They are not a real army like the Iraqi Army before the occupation. The
occupation forces built this new army to protect them from resistance. I think
any honest Iraqi should not join this fake army."
The army was acting against the people, he said. "You can see what they did in
Fallujah. They were like a hand of the occupation. They killed many innocent
people there and they did that in many other cities in Iraq, like Ramadi, Tal
Afar, Hit, Rawa and Haditha. Go there and see how many children, old men and
women were killed by the Iraqi Army's hand."
Abu Ayoub believes the police should be called the militia. "Ninety-five percent
of them are Shia and work with the Badr militia, and they work for Iran's
benefit. They killed many Sunni people just because they were Sunni, to create
tensions between Sunni and Shia, and to make civil war after."
But Ayoub believes it is still not right to attack members of the Iraqi army and
police. "First we must liberate Iraq from occupation forces and then we can
judge each one of them who committed crimes."
There will be no civil war in Iraq if the occupation retreats, Abu Ayoub says.
"We will control Iraq and push out all the militias and Iraqi politicians who
came on American tanks. Then we will find many honest Iraqi politicians to lead
Iraq. But for now you can see how the Iraqi people are between two hammers, the
occupation and the militia -- or even the Iraqi government, because they support
them." (END/2006)
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