After the devastating attacks in Bagdad earlier this week, ISI issued two statements days after, claiming responsibility for the multiple simultaneous attacks in Baghdad and the assassination of a high ranking counter terrorist officer in Tikrit. Both statements are related and follow a similar pattern as the two statements released after the October attacks in Baghdad, can be seen as a defiant act of revenge of ISI’s claim to have lost control over a territory in Iraq. The immediate release of two statements also implies a high level of action and reaction by ISI – something any online sympathizer believes anyway without criticism. The ISI’s credo is to destroy the ‘counter-state’, run by Shiites and protected by internal enemies and the Crusaders.
The Statement regarding the Baghdad attacks
The statement is – as always – introduced by a short reference of the Quran, that is taken out of its historical context and part of the comprising ideological pillars that simply are used to justify violence by all means.
The statement is entitled “Raid of the Prisoner in Baghdad” and claims to be the “Third Confrontation” in this regard. The first attack in August, followed by October is now concluded for 2009 by the December attack – all three attacks had been in the name of the “prisoner” and the exploited Sunnites in Iraq, repelling the Shiites and the Crusaders, the invaders.
Here is an English translation from an online sympathizer – my comments are in [COMMENT: brackets]
The translation is provided by one of the volunteer online jihadists and it is not very good – interesting though to see his understanding of the statement in English. The original Arabic statement is much more comprising in highly defined ideological terms that are indeed difficult to translate but by neglecting it, nevertheless, the statement is in wide parts distorted from its original meaning, intend and value for the Arabic jihadists. But anything that is being made available from the Arabic to the weird crowd of non-Arabic speaking allahu akbar criers is being cherished and dwelled upon, even if some interesting fundamental ideological implications may be lost.
—BEGINN of TRANSLATION
“In the name of Allah most Gracious most merciful
~~ the third stage of the Expedition of the Prisoners in the heart of Baghdad ~~
Allah says in the Quran: O you who have attained to faith! Fight against those deniers of the truth who are near you, and let them find you adamant; and know that .God is with those who are conscious of Him. (9:123 Taubah)
[COMMENT: the historical reference is to be made to the unsuccessful campaign against Tabuk, that led to change the strategy in terms of combating enemies in close range first before trying to archive control over hostile territories.]
Praise is to Allah the Lord of the Worlds, and peace and blessings on the Prophet Mohammed, and on his family and companions and…To Proceed:
And here is the brigade of monotheism again in our beloved Baghdad, By the grace and mercy of Allah alone the mujahedeen managed to execute the operations on the fourth of Sha`baan and on the first of dhul qedah [COMMENT: August and October] and now another blessed operation, A continuation of the second phase of the good harvest [COMMENT: it should be translated as “the harvest of the good”] and the blessed expedition of the prisoners, the Islamic youth has set forth again, the pious knights of Baghdad targeted the bastions of evil and dens of apostates, targeting the bases which are waging a war against Al-Islam and the Muslims, and this time we selected some targets that where on our list: striking the Labor Ministry, a court complex and the new site of Iraq’s Finance Ministry). [COMMENT: the original Arabic is much more comprising, highlighting much more the emphasis of the alleged anti-Sunni attitude of the government and focusing on destroying courts that judge by worldly law]
The righteous believers proved again: that al-Jihad in the current time is the true honor for the Islamic Nation [COMMENT: “jihad today is the means of true honor for this Islamic umma”] in a time where they call believers strangers and humiliate them, and the people of falsehood attack the believers, the believers where humiliated on a land that has experienced the best time on earth. [COMMENT: not a good translation, but, ah well… – “in this time of alienation of the religion and the defilement of the Muslims, the rule of the true wicked morals” and so forth that has come upon the honors of Islam and the Muslims]
And we say to the Islamic nation : know that the mujahedeen are the hope of the Islamic nation and the light of the Islamic nation will never extinguish with the permission of Allah, because when the mujahedeen say something they will do it, and when they promise something they will carrie it out, and the convoy of Martyrdom seekers are longing to meet the merciful, and their soul which Allah blessed did not accept to be governed by a filthy polytheist Shiite, or a stupid idiot.
And we give glad tidings to our people on our land, that the determined believers have determined that they will eliminate the pillars of this government, and target their military forces, the target list will not finish with the permission of Allah until we manage to raise the flag of monotheism in Baghdad, and implement the Islamic law, and this is our mission from the beginning, and the lies of the hypocrites will not stop it, nor the people of falsehood or the people who have forsaken us, O people of Islam move forward move forward, be harsh be harsh, emigrate and emigrate – (emigrate to the Islamic state of Iraq) [… and so on]
Allah is the greatest {all honour belongs to God, and to His Apostle and those who believe:but of this the hypocrites are not aware.} The Ministry of Information/media / Islamic State of Iraq Tuesday, 22 / del Hija / 1430 migration of the Prophet Muhammad to medina 9 / 12 / 2009 Source Al-Fair media
Quick [and not good] Translation by Ansar 007
–END of TRANSLATION and no more comment –
Online Jihad: Monitoring Jihadist Online Communities 