Al-Qaida Group Claims Iraq Ministry Attack

Al-Qaida's Iraqi affiliate group has claimed responsibility for a coordinated attack on a ministry in the capital that killed at least 25 people.

The Islamic State of Iraq said in a statement online it ordered the assault last week on the Justice Ministry, near Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone, home to several government buildings and Western embassies.

The bombings happened one week before the 10th anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and a month before Iraq's first elections in three years.

Iraq has been plagued by infighting among sectarian factions. Many Sunnis accuse Shi'ite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki of discriminating against their community. For months, Sunni militants have been carrying out a series of strikes on Shi'ite targets. 

 

from VOA News

March 17, 2013

 

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Al Qaeda in Iraq claims credit for Tikrit jailbreak

By Bill Roggio - October 12, 2012 - LWJ

The Islamic State of Iraq, al Qaeda in Iraq's political front, claimed credit for a complex assault on the Tasfirat prison in Tikrit that freed more than 100 prisoners, including dozens of terrorists.

In a statement that was released yesterday on jihadist Internet forums and translated by the SITE Intelligence Group, the Islamic State of Iraq said it executed the Sept. 27 prison break. The terror group said the operation was part of its "Destroying the Walls" campaign, which was announced at the end of July by Abu Du'a, the Islamic State of Iraq's emir. In that statement, Abu Du'a said that emphasis would be placed on efforts "to release the Muslim prisoners everywhere."

In yesterday's statement, al Qaeda in Iraq detailed its complex attack. The group claimed that "silenced weapons, hand grenades, and explosive belts" were smuggled into the prison, and then operations were coordinated between the "imprisoned brothers inside the jail" and the assault team outside.

The prisoners seized control of the prison "while their brothers on the outside kill the main gate's guards by detonating a parked car bomb and cutting off all roads leading to the security compound against the support patrols," according to the SITE translation. The car bomb is thought to have been detonated by a suicide bomber.

After taking control of the prison, the al Qaeda fighters attacked the prison archives and destroyed "the data and database of the prisoners and those who are wanted," according to SITE. "Also, sensitive documents were taken and that which could benefit the apostates in pursuing the mujahideen was burned."

Al Qaeda in Iraq claimed that the operation resulted in "the death and injury of nearly 80 apostates," and the escape of "tens" of its fighters. News reports indicated that two Iraqi policemen, an Iraqi soldier, and 11 al Qaeda in Iraq fighters were killed during the fighting.

Read more: http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2012/10/al_qaeda_in_iraq_cla_3.php#ixzz29AhZMCmz

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13 Iraqi police killed in Tikrit prison clashes

Clashes killed at least 13 policemen at a prison in the Iraqi city of Tikrit that was seized by militants but has since been retaken by security forces, officials said on Friday.

And at least 83 prisoners were able to escape during the unrest, the officials said.

The violence at the prison comes after al-Qaeda’s Iraqi front group announced a campaign to regain territory and said it aimed to help its jailed members escape.

Salaheddin provincial deputy governor Ahmed Abdul Jabbar told AFP by telephone that the Tikrit prison had been retaken from militants who seized it on Thursday night, but that 83 prisoners escaped.

A hospital official in Tikrit, the ancestral home of slain dictator Saddam Hussein, said 13 police were killed and 34 wounded in the violence.

A source in the Salaheddin police command meanwhile said 15 policemen and seven prisoners were killed, and put the number of escaped prisoners at about 100.

“We took control of the prison, and the gunmen handed over their weapons,” the official said.

Accounts differed on the specifics of the unrest, but it appears militants attacked from outside the prison, while inmates may have seized weapons from guards inside.

A police lieutenant colonel said Thursday that a suicide bomber detonated a car bomb at the gate of the prison, after which it was assaulted by gunmen.

And a traffic police lieutenant colonel who was near the scene of the attack said militants blew up a portion of the prison fence, and that between 30 and 40 prisoners were able to escape.

A police colonel meanwhile said that riots broke out in the prison, while witnesses in the area said prisoners seized the guards’ weapons, and that more than 100 of them escaped and fought security forces in the surrounding area.

The tactics reportedly employed in the assault were reminiscent of those used in attacks in July and August.

Gunmen attempted to use bombs to breach a prison gate in Taji, north of Baghdad, on Aug. 1, after using similar tactics on the anti-terrorism directorate in the capital the day before in an attack the interior ministry said was an attempt to free inmates.

Al-Qaeda’s front group the Islamic State of Iraq said in July that it was launching a “new military campaign aimed at recovering territory.”

An earlier message posted on jihadist forums said the ISI would begin targeting judges and prosecutors, and try to help its prisoners break out of jails.

from AL ARABIYA 
Last Updated: Fri Sep 28, 2012 12:23 pm (KSA) 09:23 am (GMT)

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Al Qaeda front group claims 43 attacks in Iraq

BAGHDAD: Al Qaeda’s front group in Iraq claimed it carried out a series of attacks, mostly on security forces, in the western province of Anbar in June and July, a statement posted on jihadist forums said.

The 43 attacks purportedly carried out by the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) were largely in the form of bombings and shootings against Iraqi soldiers, police and anti-Qaeda militiamen known as the Sahwa, according to the statement, which was posted on Wednesday.

It comes after ISI declared a campaign last month to retake territory it had abandoned in the years since the peak of Iraq’s sectarian bloodshed between 2006 and 2008.

Al Qaeda in Iraq is regarded by Iraqi officials as significantly weaker than at the peak of its strength in 2006 and 2007, but it is still capable of spectacular mass-casualty attacks across the country.

The group claimed a wave of attacks on July 23 that killed 113 people nationwide, the deadliest violence to hit Iraq in more than two and a half years.

from DAWN

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Security tightened after Iraq attacks kill 113, wound 250

Monday’s spate of bombings and shootings, which drew widespread international condemnation, came after al-Qaeda warned it would seek to retake territory and mount new attacks.

Overall, 29 separate attacks were launched in 19 cities, shattering the relative calm that had held in the lead-up to the start of the holy Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

Extra police and soldiers as well as security force vehicles were deployed on Tuesday at marketplaces in neighborhoods of Baghdad hit by the violence, witnesses said.

In the deadliest incidents -- a string of roadside bombs and a car bomb followed by a suicide attack targeting emergency responders in the town of Taji, just north of Baghdad -- at least 42 people were killed and 40 wounded, medical officials said.

“I was sleeping, and my parents lifted me out of bed,” recalled 11-year-old Mohammed, whose family’s home in Taji was leveled by the blast.

“They were shouting, ‘Get up quickly! Help your younger brothers! There is a car bomb!’”

“It felt like it was just a few moments later when it exploded, and there was a big ball of fire, and the wreckage was falling over our heads.”

In Baghdad a car bomb outside a government office responsible for producing identity papers in the Shiite bastion of Sadr City killed at least 12 people and wounded 33 others, security and medical officials said.

Explosions elsewhere in Baghdad killed at least six people and wounded 51 others, including a car bomb outside a cafe in the capital's Ur neighborhood at around 11:00 pm (2000 GMT) that left at least two dead and 24 wounded, officials said.

A car bomb in the town of Tarmiyah, just north of the capital, also killed one and hurt nine.

Elsewhere in Iraq, shootings and bomb blasts in Diyala, Salaheddin, Kirkuk, Anbar and Diwaniyah provinces left 52 people dead and more than 100 wounded.

U.S. State department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters Washington strongly condemned the attacks.

“The targeting of innocents is always cowardly,” she said. “It’s particularly reprehensible during this holy month of Ramadan.”

The violence also drew condemnation from the United Nations special envoy to Iraq, the country’s parliament speaker, as well as France, Canada and neighboring Iran.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Monday’s attacks, but al-Qaeda’s front group in Iraq has warned in recent days it would seek to retake territory in the country.

The Islamic State of Iraq said in an audio message posted online that it would begin targeting judges and prosecutors, and appealed for the help of Sunni tribes in its quest to recapture territory it once held.

Monday’s attacks came a day after a spate of bombings across the country killed at least 17 people and wounded nearly 100. Monday’s toll was the highest since December 8, 2009, when 127 people were killed.

from AL ARABIYA

Tuesday, 24 July 2012 

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AQI claims attacks on Haditha, Barwana

By Bill Roggio - March 16, 2012 - Threat Matrix/LWJ

Al Qaeda in Iraq's political front, the Islamic State of Iraq, claimed credit for the series of recent attacks in the western cities of Haditha and Barwana in Anbar province that killed 27 Iraqi policemen. AQI called the attacks the "Invasion of Commander Jarrah al Shami," according to the SITE Intelligence Group, which translated the statement.
AQI said that "ninety mujahideen, who had pledged for death and many of whom were enrobed with explosive belts, launched in four convoys towards the city of Haditha, under the leadership of the Mujahid Sheikh the Anbar governor." The target of course was the Shia, now a frequent target of AQI's ire:

By the grace of Allah, and after relying on Him and fulfilling what pleases Him of the Shariah and universal factors of victory, a group of the descendents of the noble companions and men of the Islamic State launched in a new blessed attack, targeting one of the dear cities of Anbar province, a city in which the heads of infidelity had nested and the apostate profligates had taken as a base to strike the mujahideen, attack Shariah, and empower the Safavid Rafidah [Shi'ites].

The operation was named after Jarrah al Shami, a Syrian who served on the Islamic State of Iraq's shura, or executive council, according to Iraq scholar Nibras Kazimi. Abu Omar al Baghdadi, the former leader of the ISI, described al Shami as one of the terror group's "heroes." So it appears that al Baghdadi's heroes include at least one non-Iraqi, and possibly two. From Kazimi's Talisman's Gate:

The final segment of the speech deals with the second anniversary of the founding of the Islamic State of Iraq, and one oddity about it is al-Baghdadi's choice of who the top heroes of the Islamic State of Iraq are supposed to be: Abul-Basha'ir al-Juburi (a jihadist leader by the pseudonym of "Abul-Basha'ir" was killed during November 2007, but he was identified as a Syrian national. The Juburi tribal handle makes it more plausible that this particular Abul-Basha'ir is an Iraqi, even though there are some Juburis in Syria), Abu Bakr al-'Afri (a certain Abu Muhammad al-'Afri was killed during September 2007 near Mosul; don't know if this is the same person, the last name suggests an African background), and Muharib al-Juburi. Al-Baghdadi adds that al-'Afri, al-Shami and al-Juburi were members of the shura [consultative] council of the Islamic State of Iraq, while Abul-Basha'ir is identified as the Chief of Staff of the Army of the State of Islam.

Read more: http://www.longwarjournal.org/threat-matrix/archives/2012/03/aqi_claims_attack_on_haditha_b.php

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