From Asia Times, with thanks to EPG:
At least fourteen American troops and several others were killed on Tuesday in an attack on an improvised dining hall of a US military base at Mosul in northern Iraq. An organization called Jaish Ansar al-Sunnah (JAAS) has claimed responsibility for the attack.While JAAS has projected the attack as a suicide bombing, thereby giving the impression that it has been able to penetrate the US military base, local US Army spokesmen have described it as a mortar attack, similar to the mortar attacks on the Green Zone in Baghdad, which one witnesses frequently.
JAAS, which came to notice for the first time in February after a major terrorist strike in the Kurdish areas, has claimed responsibility for many killings of kidnapped hostages, including 12 Nepalis, and a number of daring attacks - not only in and around Mosul, but also in different areas of the Sunni triangle. The incidents outside Mosul show that it has a wide reach in the Sunni-majority areas of Iraq.
It advocates hardline fundamentalism, similar to that of the Afghan Taliban. It describes its objectives as not only the defeat of the US-led occupation troops and the liberation of Iraq from their subjugation, but also the establishment of orthodox Islamic rule in Iraq after its liberation. It says that those Iraqis who had willingly sacrificed their lives in the jihad against the occupiers would have died in vain if a secular government was to be restored in Iraq after the defeat of the occupying forces.
A statement of December 6 attributed to JAAS said:
It is known that jihad in Iraq has become the obligatory required duty of every Muslim after the infidel enemy fell upon the land of Islam. It was the followers of the Prophet's Sunnah and Jammah, the people of unification and following of ancestors, who raised the blessed banner of jihad and acted in groups, each in their area but spontaneously, receiving the directions and orders for their jihad from the Book of Allah and the Sunnah of His Noble Prophet. They included clerics, sheikhs, and military fighters.
This is in accord with traditional Islamic doctrine on jihad. Jihad in the defense of Muslim lands is fard ayn, that is, obligatory for every Muslim.
Also note that this is probably mistranslated. I haven't seen the original, but "the people of unification" sounds to me as if it was more likely "the people of Tawhid," that is, the Islamic doctrine of the absolute unity of God. And I suspect that "the following of ancestors" likely refers to their loyalty to Islamic tradition.
The task is great and the situation is momentous. It concerns the nation's fate and does not terminate by the end of the occupation. The aim does not end with their defeat, but with the upholding of Allah's religion and the application of the Sharia of Allah to rule this Islamic land. What is the use of shedding Muslim mujahideens' blood to throw out the forces of occupation if, after that, the fruits are enjoyed by a secular Iraqi or a puppet agent of the Americans working to fulfill their plans and programs? Then, we return to the control of a puppet government that rules with the laws of infidels in the name of Islam and is, in fact, controlled by the Jews and the Christians.A faithful does not get bitten twice. Because of this, a group of resistance fighters and knowledgeable people, who have the political and military savvy and who have the record in managing the Islamic struggle against the enemies of Islam, have brought together a number of divided groups and platoons of resistance that operated in the field from the north to the south to make up a huge army that comes under a unified command. A command that will establish a locally devised unimported practical plan based on their knowledge of the battlefield and on the basis of the Sharia in the Koran and the Sunnah. We called it the Ansar al-Sunnah Army. We call on our brethren in faith and jihad to come together under the banner of this army to fulfill the hope of an Islamic nation that honors Islam and Muslims. Allah's hand is with the group; the devil is in the company of the single. The wolf attacks the straggler sheep.
Its projection of itself as "a group of resistance fighters and knowledgeable people, who have the political and military savvy and who have the record in managing the Islamic struggle against the enemies of Islam", is significant. This seeks to show that it is a mixed group of local resistance fighters and others who had participated in jihad elsewhere. However, it also projects itself as an indigenous organization carrying out a jihad against the occupation troops on the basis of a "locally devised unimported practical plan".
Actually it has been confirmed that it was indeed a suicide bombing.
Apparently they found what was left of the bomber along with part of a shrapnel belt. Investigators noticed that much of the shrapnel was actually large BB-type balls, the kind commonly used by suicide bombers in Israel.
This from the reporter from the Richmond Times-Dispatch who was at the scene during the bombing:
http://www.timesdispatch.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=RTD/MGArticle/RTD_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1031779830462
from Voice of America:
http://www.voanews.com/english/2004-12-22-voa65.cfm
When will you Americans start listening to your liberals instead of blaming them for everything?
They told you the Vietnam War was pointless. (They were right)
They told you not to arm the Islamists to fight the Soviet-backed secular government in Afghanistan. (They were right)
They told Communism was not a real threat. (They were right)
They told you not to liberate Kuwait, to keep out of the Middle East and let the Arabs sort it out. (They were right - unless you thought 9/11 was a good result)
They told you Sadam had no WMDs and no terror contacts, and that an invasion of Iraq would make things worse. (They were right - unless you think that the above story is a good result)
The Americans can't police the world. You talk about Roadmaps to peace - Roadmap to Peace? Roadmap to Fairyland more like! There is no peace in Islam.
Why do you support Israel? They've got nuclear weapons, a good economy and a superb army. They really don't need your help. By doing this you just add fuel to the fire.
I can't understand how a nation that gave us the light bulb and aeroplanes, how a nation that can build the world's best economy, can behave like such a retard on the international stage.
Listen to your liberals! They are the voice of reason in your nation. Most of them know Islam sucks as well. Many facets of Islam offend them as much as they offend you. So don't get arrogant about conservatives owning the truth. You rant about Christianity - well most liberals are closer to the Christian ideal than you think.
Just because they don't have a John Wayne approach, you beat them down.
Democracy in Chile was overthrown (with extensive US help) on September 11th (73). Do you not find this strange synchronicity somewhat disturbing? The two crimes were not linked, and yet within the synchronicity there is a lesson.
I admit that a liberal encouraging Muslim immigration is wrong, but a lot of Muslim immigration occurred during Conservative administration in both Europe and in the USA. So don't blame them for a problem they did not create.
The Islamic world can't be fixed. It should be isolated and avoided. If you carry on with this stupid war some Muslim son-of-a-bitch is going to nuke you. I hate Islam as much as anybody here, but all this “send in the marines” bullshit just isn't the answer.
Lets not forget to look at the root causes for these type of bombings,after all,if the WEST wasn't trying to push Freedom and Liberty on the Iraqi people(mostly female rights) those Peaceful,God-loving,followers of Islam wouldn't
have been incited to murder for the protection of Allah's peace and mercy that's revered in the Middle East as the "True" practise for worshipping God and honoring Muhammed's teachings
of tolerance and pluralism.
Yeah,right.
No ISLAM - KNOW PEACE
Listen to your liberals! They are the voice of reason in your nation. Most of them know Islam sucks as well. Many facets of Islam offend them as much as they offend you. So don't get arrogant about conservatives owning the truth. You rant about Christianity - well most liberals are closer to the Christian ideal than you think.
Just because they don't have a John Wayne approach, you beat them down.
Timbo:
Go crawl back into the hole you crawled out of. You are on the wrong site.
All this is very sad, many american soldiers by the the miserable muslims, this has been a prevention for other wars, if America don´t believe like in II WW, that is in war with islam like in that thing with nazis, and America has a lot of weapons, destroy accounts, preventive actions and other things but building a democracy in Iraq is an illusion very difficult to do. Greetings
Timbo:
You're not a liberal. You're an isolationist. Sixty years ago, your type of liberal/leftist argued against going to war against Hitler.
It's easy to count how many people died, but impossible to figure out how many were saved by military intervention.
The shame of the invasion of Iraq isn't that the US/UK led coalition invaded, but that France, China and Russia opposed the invasion because they were getting pay-off through the oil-for-food vouchers. Saddam may not have had nukes or WMDs but he was busily buying the raw materials despite the bans and keeping idle scientists on the government payroll so they could resume their work when the coast was cleared of UN inspectors who couldn't be bought off by Tariq Aziz.
Waterdragon
Yeah, right! Socialists had nothing to do with the fight against Hitler! How little you know about European history! I think you will find that by early 1941 the Socialists in the USA were keener than anybody to join in.
Anyway, the Japanese and Germans had both reached an advanced stage of civilization. After the conflict, both nations could be reprogrammed for democracy. Muslims are backward barbarians - they can't be helped. Their armies are not a threat, their extremists are. Any move by the USA promotes extremism amongst them. Any military action is counterproductive.
Afghanistan was a partial success, although the biggest winners are the drug lords. The invasion of Afghanistan was unavoidable after 9/11, but this occupation is going to turn sour. Will it still be quiet there in 5 or 10 years? I don't think so.
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Your young men in Iraq are fine soldiers and good people. For them to be blown to bits for the impossible cause of teaching Muslims democracy is nothing but a tragedy. The Middle East and the whole Muslim world are totally beyond help. Nothing will save them from their insane right wing religious dogma.
You went into North Africa to try and sort out Muslim strife there, you found yourselves in a quagmire. Same thing happened in Lebanon in the 1980's - hundreds of American dead, and nothing to show for it! And now for some inexplicable reason you think everything is going to be all right this time around. Why do you enjoy sacrificing your young men for nothing - you're just like the Aztecs.
Your dumb foreign policies have just caused disaster after disaster for 40 years. When will you people learn? Why do you not just defend your national borders like any normal country?
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Texasleslie.
Yes, I think I should dig a hole, and hide in it! The Muslims love to hate, and people like you just love setting your country up as a big fat target for that hate. Pragmatism and past experience are alien concepts to you.
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The Muslim world needs at least 100 years, perhaps 200, to grow to a stage where they can start thinking like reasonable human beings. You think you can go into the Middle East with guns blazing and make it happen in two years? It's lunacy, you will just set the process back by another 30 years. The British Empire thought it could do the same thing, they tried it for 200 years - and failed.
Within the lifetime of many reading this site, nuclear bomb technology will become a century old. Third rate countries are already nuclear powers; by 2045 any terrorist organization is going to be able to get hold of such ancient hardware. Forget your pride, turn the other cheek and survive! Let the Muslims kill each other - who cares, better them than you.
These are not your problems, the same as the revolutions in South East Asia in the 1960's were not your problems. Learn something!