Syrian Insurgents Announce “Martyrdom Brigade”

by Florian Flade

The footage seems oddly similar to what was released from Iraq in 2003 soon after the American invasion. Masked gunmen posing with their weapons in front of an Al-Qaida flag. But this is not the scene of a Iraqi Al-Qaida video – it is recent footage coming out of Syria.

A group of the so-called “Free Syrian Army” in the occupied city fo Homs has – according to the new video – formed a martyrdom battalion, a special unit committed to carry out suicide bombings in the country.

One Syrian militant explains that the “Al-Baraa Ibn Malik Martyrdom Brigade” will fight the Assad regime and its military with all needs, especially suicide bombers.

The video emerges just days after U.S. officials claim Al-Qaida does and will play a bigger role in the Syrian insurgency. According to U.S. intelligence officials Al-Qaida militants from Iraq have infiltrated the Syrian resistance and are now fighting against the Syrian regime. Some of the opposition groups are not even aware of the Jihadi militants amongst them, the U.S. intelligence analysts are stating.

Al-Qaida in Iraq (officially “Islamic State of Iraq”) is suspected of being the mastermind of recent suicide bombings inside Syria, the U.S. claims.

Other media reports seem to confirm the U.S. analysis of Al-Qaida infiltrating the Syrian insurgency. Weapons from Iraq are allegedly being sold back to Syria by the Iraqi Jihadi groups. The price of these arms has doubled or even tripled in recent weeks. An AK-47 assault rifle is available for the price of 1400 $-US, before it was as low as 400 to 500 US-$.

Swedish Suicide Bomber Trained in Iraq

by Florian Flade

Al-Arabiya TV Channel reports it has received information that the failed Stockholm suicide bomber Taimour Abdulwahhab al-Abdali underwent terror training in Iraq before he carried out his attack in the Swedish capital in early December 2010. Tonight the Arabic speaking TV channel will broadcast the new information in a show called “Industrie of Death”.

Major General Zia Kinani, Head of Iraqi Counter-Terrorism, told Al-Arabiya Iraqi security officials had warned Swedish authorities two months prior to the bombing in Stockholm, that Sweden might be a possible target for the Iraqi al-Qaida network. The USA and Sweden have been warned the “Islamic State of Iraq” (Al-Qaida) is planning to carry out operations in the USA and Europe.

The Swedish national Taimour Abdulwahhab al-Abdali who blew himself up next to a busy shopping street in Stockholm, had entered Iraq via the Turkish border in 2010, Iraqi officials have learned. He received explosives training in an al-Qaida training camp in the Northern Iraqi city of Mosul. Several other foreign Jihadis, including an Egyptian, were trained at the same time and same place as al-Abdali. One of the Egyptians who trained alongside al-Abdali is still at large. Security forces suspect the man was tasked with a similar operation.

Iraqi security officials believe al-Qaida in Iraq (“Islamic State of Iraq”) is trying to carry out a big operation in Europe or the USA to proof that the group is still alive and dangerous. They try to do the same thing the Yemeni al-Qaida (Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula) did – take the local fight to external operations, sending Western individuals on terror missions. Al-Qaida in Iraq is therefore trying to recruit Western Jihadis, European and North American citizens.

Shortly after the death of its famous leader and Amir Abu Mussab az-Zarqawi, the Iraqi al-Qaida branch carried out its first international operation on November 9th 2005 in the Jordanian capital Amman. A suicide bomber couple was sent to Jordan from Iraq to kill Westerners and Jordanian intelligence officials in a hotel. 60 people died, most of them guests of a wedding which took place at the targeted hotel.

Since the Jordan attack, no operation was successfully carried out outside Iraq by members of the Iraqi al-Qaida. The Stockholm suicide bomber al-Abdali sent three audio messages to Swedish police and a news agency, in which he stated “the Islamic State has begun to fulfill its promise”. Al-Abdali did not specifically mention Iraq or the “Islamic State of Iraq”. Terror experts and Swedish officials therefore did not immediately confirm a link between the Stockholm bomber and the terror network. However, al-Abdali did mention he traveled to the Middle East several times over the past four years, saying he feels sorry for lying to his wife and children about the motives of his journeys. “I did not go for business, I went for Jihad”, al-Abdali says in the audio message.

The Swedish citizen of Iraqi origin also indicates the existence of more trained terrorists ready to strike Europe. “We are not a lie…we are for real and now exist among you Europeans”, al-Abdali says.