Clashes Between Al-Qaeda in Iraq and Iraqi Mujahideen Who are Not Members of Al-Qaeda or of Its Shura Council

Today, October 13, 2006, an Islamic website posted a 17-minute video cassette showing a masked man called "Abu Osama Al-Iraqi" who presented himself as one of the commanders of the jihad in Iraq. In the cassette, he addressed Osama bin Laden with accusations against Al-Qaeda in Iraq and its commanders, and threatened that the Iraqi mujahideen would fight Al-Qaeda in Iraq.

"Abu Osama Al-Iraqi" set out a long list of acts of harassment, murder, expulsion, damage to property, and expropriation of money perpetrated by Al-Qaeda members against the Iraqi mujahideen and their families. He also stated that Al-Qaeda members had expropriated the weapons of the other jihad factions, such as the Islamic Army, and were using the population as a human shield, without consulting with the clerics on this matter. He said that all these actions, including the murder of Iraqi jihad commanders, were aimed at the Iraqi jihad organizations that had refused to join Al-Qaeda or its Shura Council, and that in some Iraqi cities (Ramadi, Falluja, Al-Khalidiya), the Iraqi mujahideen had begun to fight them.

As a result of this situation, he said, only the dregs remain in Al-Qaeda in Iraq; all the educated people have left it.

The speaker asks bin Laden to replace the amir of the jihad in Iraq and to appoint an Iraqi to this post, as he had appointed an Afghani to head the jihad in Afghanistan. If he did not, Al-Iraqi said, the Iraqi mujahideen would no longer heed him, and would kill and humiliate the members of Al-Qaeda in Iraq.

Note: A complete transcript of the cassette will be posted soon on www.memri.org.