Al-Qaida-led insurgents announce an "Islamic Cabinet" for Iraq

ap
CAIRO, Egypt: A Sunni insurgent coalition announced an "Islamic Cabinet" for Iraq and named the head of al-Qaida in Iraq as "minister of war" in a Web video Thursday aimed at showing their strength in leading the fight against the Iraqi government.

The announcement appeared to have multiple aims. One was to present the Islamic State of Iraq coalition as a "legitimate" alternative to the U.S.-backed, Shiite-led administration of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki — and to demonstrate that it was only growing in power despite the U.S. military push against insurgents.

It also likely sought to establish the coalition's dominance among insurgents after an embarassing public dispute with other Iraqi Sunni militants.

The message came after hours after another video from the group showing the execution of 20 men said to be members of the Iraqi military and security forces. It showed a masked gunmen walking down a row of the men, blindfolded and bound, shooting each in the back of the head.

The Islamic State of Iraq is a coalition of eight insurgent groups, the most poweful of them al-Qaida in Iraq. It was first announced in October, claiming to hold territory in the Sunni-dominated areas of western and central Iraq.

In the Cabinet announcement video, a man identified as a spokesman for the group appeared, with his face obscured, speaking from behind a desk with a flat-screen computer.

"It is the duty at our present stage to form this Cabinet, the first Islamic Cabinet, which has faith in God," said the spokesman, wearing robes and a red kafiyyah headdress.

He denounced Iraq's rulers for the past decades — including Saddam Hussein's Baath Party and the present government — saying they "spread corruption and ruined the country and its people, until God helped the mujahideen (holy warriors) bring torture upon them."

"Now the Islamic State emerges as a state for Islam and the mujahideen," he said.

He then listed a 10-member "Cabinet," including Abu Hamza al-Muhajer as "war minister." Al-Muhajer is the name announced as the successor of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, who was killed in the summer of 2006. The U.S. military and Iraqi government have identified him by another pseudonym, Abu Ayyub al-Masri.

The names listed by the spokesman were all pseudonyms and their real names were not known — though the pseudonyms included the names of some major Sunni Arab tribes.

The Islamic state is led by Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, who holds the title of "emir (prince) of the faithful."

Sheik Abu Abdul-Rahman al-Falahi was named as the emir's "first minister," the spokesman said. Other positions included ministers of information, "prisoners and martyrs," agriculture and health.

The video came on the heels of a rare public dispute between the coalition and other insurgent groups.

In past week, another Sunni insurgent group, the Islamic Army in Iraq, has issued statements accusing al-Qaida of killing its members and trying to force others to join its ranks. Al-Baghdadi tried to patch up the dispute by issuing a Web audiotape this week calling for unity and promising to punish any of his group's members who kill other insurgents.

Al-Qaida in Iraq is blamed for some of the deadliest suicide bombings against Shiite civilians, as well as numerous attacks on U.S. troops and Iraqi soldiers and police. The U.S. military has blamed it for a devastating bombing Wednesday in Baghdad's Sadriyah market, killing 127 people.

The execution video posted Thursday purported to show 20 Iraqi police and soldiers that the Islamic State in Iraq claimed six days earlier to have kidnapped northwest of Baghdad. It had threatened to kill them after 48 hours unless the government freed female prisoners and handed over police accused of rapes in the norther town of Tal Afar.

The Iraqi government has denied that 20 police and soldiers were kidnapped. Interior Ministry spokesman Brig. Gen. Abdul-Karim Khalaf said Thursday that the men in the video could not be identified and said the insurgents may have dressed up civilians to kill them.

"We checked with our commands then and all the troops were accounted for," Khalaf told The Associated Press. "They are immoral criminals. They have used all criminal methods and we don't rule out that they executed civilians who they dressed in military uniforms."

The video first showed the 20 men inside a room, lined up in three rows with black blindfolds over their eyes and their hands tied behind their backs. In front of a black Islamic State of Iraq flag, they wore blue police uniforms or military fatigues, and the camera focused on ID badges from the Defense or Interior Ministry on their chests. Some can be heard identifying themselves on the video and giving their positions in the military or security forces.

"I call upon the brothers in the national guards to agree to throw down their weapons and return to the path of God and Islam," said one after identifying himself as Mizher Jassem Mohammed Hussein, an engineer and army captain.

One of the men, wearing army fatigues, was seen shaking and swaying back and forth as he stood, then collapsing as his colleagues spoke.

The video then showed a masked gunman walking down the row of captives, kneeling in a clearing near trees. He shot them one by one, sending each tumbling forward as three other masked militants stood nearby, holding a black banner of the Islamic State of Iraq.