Revenge killings?

[Airedale]

7 al-Zarqawi insurgents found slain in retaliation for killing

 

By John Ward Anderson

The Washington Post

 

BAGHDAD, Iraq — When more than 80 bodies were found last week at four different places in Iraq, a fifth gruesome discovery attracted little notice.

 

In the violent city of Ramadi, a center of Sunni insurgent activity 60 miles west of Baghdad, the bodies of seven men were found lined up in an unfinished house on the western outskirts of town, according to eyewitnesses.

 

Unlike the corpses elsewhere, which were mostly Iraqi police and soldiers, the bodies in Ramadi apparently were foreigners, fighters working for Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who has claimed responsibility for suicide bombings, kidnappings and assassinations.

 

Each of the seven had been shot in the head or torso. The bodies were secretly buried in a local cemetery, the witnesses said.

 

"My cousins are the ones who killed them," said Jabbar Khalaf Marawi, 42, a former army officer and Communist Party member in Ramadi. Marawi said the slayings were carried out by members of his Dulaimi clan in retaliation for the Oct. 2 killing of a clan leaderLt. Col. Sulaiman Ahmed Dulaimi, the Iraqi National Guard commander for Ramadi and Fallujah, by al-Zarqawi's group.

 

Dulaimi and three bodyguards were traveling through Khaldiya, a small town about six miles east of Ramadi, where they were ambushed. The bodyguards were shot and killed on the spot, and Dulaimi was abducted.

 

His body was found two days later in a youth center on the shores of Lake Tharthar, 20 miles north of Khaldiya. Both his legs were broken in multiple places,his fingernails were removed

and he had two bullet wounds in his chest, according to his autopsy report.

 

A statement by al-Zarqawi's group asserted responsibility for the killing, accusing Dulaimi of being an "agent ... who works for the Americans." It said he had "confessed" to giving U.S. forces valuable information about weak spots in the guerrillas' defenses in the southern part of Fallujah.

 

Witnesses to the finding of the bodies in the house said they never went to the local police or foreign military forces to report finding the bodies, fearing that they would be accused of complicity in the slayings or that the killers would return to punish them for talking.

 

"I feared telling the Iraqi army because they would detain me and accuse me of being involved in the killings," said Ali Omar, 32, a motorcycle mechanic who discovered the bodies last Saturday

Instead, he said he went to Ramadi Hospital and told an emergency-room doctor about his discovery, but the doctor refused to get involved. "He told me, 'Why bring problems on yourself? Leave them until they find them,' " Omar said.

 

A notice from al-Zarqawi's group was posted on the gate outside a Ramadi mosque this week announcing the death of the seven men and calling their killers "blasphemers, far from the religion of God, who betrayed the mujaheddin after they trusted them." It vowed to find the killers, described as "followers of the occupiers," and behead them.

 

At the Dulaimi family compound this week in the Abu Marie neighborhood of Ramadi, Sulaiman's father, Hamad Dulaimi, 73, sat on a bench as a group of children played in the yard. The surrounding streets and rooftops were crowded with armed men.

 

"These are the children of Sulaiman, who was killed by those bastards," he said.

 

Sulaiman's wife joined him: "Now we can talk, because we got revenge," she said.

 

"If I didn't know that my son was innocent, I wouldn't have sent his cousins for revenge," the father said. "But for we Arabs, the matter of revenge is like honor. Both are the same for us."

 

As for al-Zarqawi's promise to retaliate, he said: "We got our revenge, and we have our precautions. Let them do as they like."

Will this story get a lot of coverage in Baghdad?

 

 

How will the other Sunni families take this story?

Is the tribal loyality about to fall into the direction of the Shia/Kurd direction? Just how much of a factor is the Dulaimi clan in Iraqi/Sunni politics?

 

Did Iraqi TV mention this story?

[Guest Guest_tajer]

Airdale,

This is avery intersting and important story..!

The Iraqi and Arab never covered , I will translate and post elsewhere.

 

Indeed as far Dulaimi clan, it is a core tribe of the Sunni traingle in addition to Joubor and Aubaid. Mainly in Fallouja and ramadi. Some of Dulaimi clan were accuased to be core within the Sadam's intellegence officers and also core to the Alzarqawee luetanants.

 

If this story is true, then we are wittnessing the end of the Zarqawee's strong holds in Ramadi!

[Airedale]

Guest_tajer

 

Thanks for the information on Iraqi tribal family strengths. I thought someone like you would have a better understanding on Iraqi customs.

 

This story was just released by Seattle Washington news source only hours ago.That may be the reason the story may not have been covered by the Iraqi or Arab media as of yet.

Maybe you can better reach Iraqi's who could say "yes or no" this story is "true or false".

If this story is true, then we are wittnessing the end of the Zarqawee's strong holds in Ramadi!

The story must be verified by tribal sources locally.

 

The story must be told and verified about the torture of Lt. Col. Sulaiman Ahmed Dulaimi, the Iraqi National Guard commander

If it is in fact true, the family has spoken out about justice being served.

 

His body was found two days later in a youth center on the shores of Lake Tharthar, 20 miles north of Khaldiya. Both his legs were broken in multiple places,his fingernails were removed and he had two bullet wounds in his chest, according to his autopsy report.

 

This story may not get much media attention in the United States either.

 

Hopefully, Iraqi bloggers can get the word back and verify if it's true.

 

Maybe you could follow up and inform us here with what you find out ?

[Uruk]

these are good news

[Guest Guest_tajer]

http://www.aljeeran.net/viewarticle.php?id...pg=index&art=mp

In Arabic.. Alshark alawsat posted a translation of the article

[Guest مستفسر]

فقط لتنبيه ان الحادثه وقعت قبل احداث تسونامي..

وليس له علاقه مباشره بالفيضانات ولكنه لا يقلل من شان الموضوع

الدي غطت عليه وسائل الاعلام العربيه , ربما خوفا من الفضيحه

[Guest مستفسر]

عدرا فاعلاه لاعلاقه بالموضوع

[Airedale]

http://www.aljeeran.net/viewarticle.php?id...pg=index&art=mp

In Arabic.. Alshark alawsat posted a translation of the article

I checked out the English version of Al Jazeera.

al Jazeera English home page

 

Nothing there.

 

Since I can't read Arabic, is the Arab translation word for word? I know something tends to get lost in translation.

Does that website offer an English version link to their news ?

 

Is there a section for readers to comment on articles posted at that news website ?

[Guest Guest_tajer]

Such news never got to Aljezera, I watched it on TV, they even never mentioned that 7 of the terrorist were killed in that area.

 

As for the link , the poster link is http://www.asharqalawsat.com/view/

There is no reader reaction for it..

 

I found some thing in the Arabic vesion that is is not in your post "I couldn't get to the original post" .

 

The Arabic version talked about a shiekh of some mosque who asked his followers to bring the crops and pray and buried them on them as myrts and call them Mujahdeen.

 

I don't know if that part was missing from your post.. If that is correct, then that would mean that we have long way to deal with such Shiekhs.!

[Airedale]

Guest_tajer,

I tried the link.

I guess the Seattle Times took down the story . I don't know why.

I am very suprised it even appeared in a Seattle newspaper. I found the original Washington Post link for you.

 

 

The Washington Post article

 

It is a little longer and gives more detail then the excerpts chosen by the Seattle paper.

Like I said earlier, the story isn't getting much coverage and I think it is a pivotal point. People do not want to publish good news.

 

Bad news and controversy sells papers.

 

 

I better post it here "in case you can't get to this original link"

 

A Gruesome Find, With a Difference

Seven Bodies Discovered in Ramadi Belonged to Followers of Zarqawi

 

By John Ward Anderson

Washington Post Foreign Service

Saturday, March 19, 2005; Page A16

 

BAGHDAD -- When more than 80 bodies, many of them slain Iraqi police officers and soldiers, were found last week at four sites in Iraq, a fifth gruesome discovery attracted little notice.

 

In the violent city of Ramadi, a center of insurgent activity 60 miles west of Baghdad, the bodies of seven men were found neatly lined up in an unfinished house on the western outskirts of town, according to witnesses. Each had been shot in the head or torso. Some witnesses said the bodies were then secretly buried in a local cemetery

 

Witnesses said they never went to the local police or foreign military forces to report finding the bodies, fearing that they would be accused of complicity in the slayings or that the killers would return to punish them for talking.

 

"I feared telling the Iraqi army because they would detain me and accuse me of being involved in the killings," said Ali Omar, 32, a motorcycle mechanic who found the bodies on the morning of March 12. Instead, he went to Ramadi Hospital and told an emergency room doctor about his discovery, but the doctor refused to get involved. "He told me, 'Why bring problems on yourself? Leave them until they find them,' " Omar said.

 

Witnesses also said the event went unreported because the dead men were foreigners, all Sunni Muslims and members of al Qaeda in Iraq, the radical group headed by Abu Musab Zarqawi that is at the forefront of the insurgency. Now that details of the slayings have surfaced, Zarqawi is vowing revenge.

 

"My cousins are the ones who killed them," said Jabbar Khalaf Marawi, 42, a former army officer and Communist Party member in Ramadi. Marawi said the slayings were carried out by members of his Dulaimi clan in retaliation for the killing of a clan leader -- Lt. Col. Sulaiman Ahmed Dulaimi, the Iraqi National Guard commander for Ramadi and Fallujah -- by Zarqawi's group last Oct. 2.

 

Dulaimi and three bodyguards were traveling through Khaldiyah, a small town east of Ramadi. When their vehicle slowed to navigate a series of concrete blocks placed in the road by U.S. forces, it was suddenly surrounded by a large group of armed men, according to witnesses interviewed at the time. The bodyguards were shot and killed on the spot, and Dulaimi was abducted, they said.

 

His body was found two days later in a youth center on the shores of Tharthar Lake, 20 miles north of Khaldiyah. Both his legs were broken in multiple places, his fingernails were removed, razor slashes were etched across his back and he had two bullet wounds in his chest, according to his autopsy report.

 

A statement by Zarqawi's group asserted responsibility for the killing, accusing Dulaimi of being an "agent . ... . who works for the Americans." The statement said he had "confessed" to giving U.S. forces information about weak spots in the guerrillas' defenses in southern Fallujah.

 

Five months later, Omar, the motorcycle mechanic, was walking his three daughters to school. Because of heavy rain, they took a detour through a largely abandoned part of Ramadi's Tamim neighborhood, which had become a hideout for insurgents who fled the November offensive in Fallujah. As they passed an unfinished house, Omar said, they were hit by the unmistakable odor of death. After dropping off his girls, he said, he went back to investigate.

 

Omar said he found the dead men inside the house. Each appeared to be in his early thirties; all had long beards and were dressed in the traditional dishdasha gown favored by mujaheddin, or holy warriors.

 

After being rebuffed at the hospital, Omar said, he went to the local mosque, where the imam asked to be led to the scene.

 

Upon arriving, "the preacher immediately said he knew the people. He said they were from Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Syria mujaheddin," Omar recounted. "He prayed and asked God for mercy. Then he turned his face to me and said, 'Your mission is over. Thank you, you can go home.' "

 

Omar Karim, 32, said he was with a group of about 10 men at the Right Mosque when the imam, whom he identified as Yassim Abdul Latif, came in "and told us there are some dead bodies belonging to mujaheddin brothers who were killed by agents of the occupiers, and we have to put them in coffins and bury them." They collected the bodies and returned with them to the mosque, Karim said.

 

Abdul Latif refused to be interviewed for this article.

 

Ahmed Mushrif, 29, a fruit juice and ice cream vendor, said the imam was late for noon prayers. He entered as an overpowering stench suddenly filled the mosque, and he "asked all those praying to take the bodies to the cemetery."

 

"I didn't want to go, but I felt I had to," Mushrif said. So he joined about 40 men in 15 cars and headed to the martyrs' cemetery, where a sign at the entrance proclaims: "It is prohibited to bury anyone who is not a martyr." He said Abdul Latif warned the procession to keep the cars far apart from each other so that Iraqi police or coalition forces would not realize they were traveling together.

 

During a simple ceremony, "the preacher gave a speech, asking us to be united, because the seven who were killed weren't hurting the people as much as they were hurting the Americans," Mushrif said.

A notice from Zarqawi's group was posted on the mosque's gate this week announcing the deaths of the men and calling their killers "blasphemers, far from the religion of God, who betrayed the mujaheddin after they trusted them." It vowed to find and behead the killers, described as "followers of the occupiers."

 

At the Dulaimi family compound this week in the Abu Marie area of Ramadi, the slain colonel's father, Hamad Dulaimi, 73, sat on a bench as a group of children played in the yard. The surrounding streets and rooftops were crowded with armed men.

 

"These are the children of Sulaiman, who was killed by those bastards," he said.

 

The colonel's wife joined him: "Now we can talk, because we got revenge."

 

"If I didn't know that my son was innocent, I wouldn't have sent his cousins for revenge," the father said. "But for we Arabs, the matter of revenge is like honor. Both are the same for us."

 

As for Zarqawi's promise to retaliate, he said: "We got our revenge, and we have our precautions. Let them do as they like."

[tajer]

Airdale,

Yes that was the missing part.

 

 

 

>Bad news and controversy sells papers.

I would call this a polite reasoning! don't want to go into the conspircy theory..

Over the last week there was a huge demonstartions against Alqaeda terrorrists and there supporters in Jordan.. There was absolutely no coverage in the main US media.. May they they were not linking to upset King Abdullah in his visit.!

[Guest mustefser]

Iraqi Civilians Fight Back Against Insurgents

By ROBERT F. WORTH

 

Published: March 23, 2005

 

 

AGHDAD, Iraq, March 22 - Ordinary Iraqis rarely strike back at the insurgents who terrorize their country. But just before noon on Tuesday, a carpenter named Dhia saw a troop of masked gunmen with grenades coming toward his shop here and decided he had had enough.

 

As the gunmen emerged from their cars, Dhia and his young relatives shouldered their Kalashnikov rifles and opened fire, the police and witnesses said. In the fierce gun battle that followed, three of the insurgents were killed, and the rest fled just after the police arrived. Two of Dhia's nephews and a bystander were wounded, the police said.

 

"We attacked them before they attacked us," said Dhia, 35, his face still contorted with rage and excitement, as he stood barefoot outside his home a few hours after the battle, a 9-millimeter pistol in his hand. He would not give his last name.

 

"We killed three of those who call themselves the mujahedeen," he said. "I am waiting for the rest of them to come, and we will show them."

 

It was the first time that private citizens are known to have retaliated successfully against the insurgents. There have been anecdotal reports of residents shooting at attackers after a bombing or an assassination. But the gun battle on Tuesday erupted in full view of at least a dozen witnesses, including a Justice Ministry official who lives nearby.

 

The battle was the latest sign that Iraqis may be willing to start standing up against the attacks that leave dozens dead here nearly every week.

 

After a suicide bombing in Hilla last month that killed 136 people, including a number of women and children, hundreds of residents demonstrated in front of the city hall every day for almost a week, chanting slogans against terrorism. Last week a smaller but similar rally took place in Firdos Square in downtown Baghdad. Another demonstration in the capital is scheduled for Wednesday.

 

Like many of the attacks here, Tuesday's fight had sectarian overtones. Dhia and his family are Shiite Arabs, and they cook for religious festivals at the Shiite Husseiniya Mosque across from his shop. The insurgents are largely Sunni Arabs, and they have aimed dozens of attacks at Shiite figures, celebrations and even funerals.

 

In the past, Shiite religious leaders have counseled against revenge after attacks. But there are indications that some are no longer willing to turn the other cheek. Last fall an armed group called the Anger Brigade was formed after attacks on Shiite pilgrims south of Baghdad.

 

Dhia's gun battle on Tuesday unfolded in Doura, a working-class neighborhood in southern Baghdad where much of the capital's violence is concentrated. Killings and bombings have taken place there in recent weeks, and the police acknowledge that they have little control. Before the fight, an Interior Ministry official was gunned down in Doura as he drove to work, officials said.

 

Witnesses saw the gunmen circling near the Husseiniya Mosque in three cars just before the violence started, said Amjad Hamid, 25, who works at the Justice Ministry. They stopped near Dhia's shop, across from the mosque. The men carried pistols and rifles, and one had a belt full of hand grenades, he said. They drove an Oldsmobile, a gray Honda and a red Volkswagen Passat.

 

When the shooting began, Mr. Hamid said, his mother ran outside shouting his name and was struck by bullets in the leg and the ear.

 

After the insurgents fled, without the Honda, one was left behind, the Doura police chief said. That gunman broke into a nearby house and hid there, holding the residents at gunpoint until his friends arrived and drove him away, the police chief said.

 

The owner of the house, who spoke on condition that he not be identified, said the gunman had entered through the garage and made his way to the living room. "I heard the screaming of the women," the owner said, "so I went to see what was the matter, and I saw a man holding an AK-47."

 

The owner said the gunman then shouted: "Keep me here for a short time until I can leave the area or I will kill you all. I don't want anyone to leave this room."

 

They obeyed. The gunman telephoned some friends and stayed for about an hour until they arrived to pick him up. Before he left, the owner of the house said, he issued a final warning: "If you scream or call the police, my friends will come and kill you. They know where you are."

 

Two of Dhia's nephews who were with him during the attack, one 13, the other 24, were wounded, family members said. After the police arrived, they recovered the bodies of the three dead insurgents, who were identified through documents in their clothing as Abdul Razzaq Hamid, Abdul Hamid Abed and Zaid Safaa, officials said.

 

Hours later, Dhia was still furiously cursing the insurgents when he spoke to a reporter outside the front gate of his home, a short walk from his shop. A Shiite cleric standing nearby quickly told him to stop talking, and he went silent.

 

Meanwhile, a group of armed neighborhood men stood watch on the roof of the house.

 

"I am sure they will be back," one of the guards said. "We killed three of them."

 

Layla Isitfan contributed reporting for this article.

[Airedale]

I wonder if this excerpt from the earlier report -

....

...His body was found two days later in a youth center

on the shores of Tharthar Lake, 20 miles north of Khaldiyah.

Both his legs were broken in multiple places, his fingernails were removed, razor slashes were etched across his back and he had two bullet wounds in his chest, according to his autopsy report.

 

A statement by Zarqawi's group asserted responsibility for the killing, accusing Dulaimi of being an "agent . ... . who works for the Americans." The statement said he had "confessed" to giving U.S. forces information about weak spots in the guerrillas' defenses in southern Fallujah.

.....

-actually led to this story I found earlier today;

 

 

85 terrorists killed near Tharter Lake

85 Militants Killed in U.S. Raid in Iraq

 

By EDWARD HARRIS, Associated Press Writer

 

BAGHDAD, Iraq - U.S. and Iraqi forces killed 85 militants at a suspected training camp along the marshy shores of a remote lake, one of the highest guerrilla death tolls of the two-year insurgency, officials said Wednesday. They said citizens emboldened by the January elections are increasingly turning in intelligence tips

 

 

The raid at Lake Tharthar in central Iraq (news - web sites) turned up booby-trapped cars, suicide-bomber vests, weapons and training documents, Iraqi Maj. Gen. Rashid Feleih told state television. He said the insurgents included Iraqis, Filipinos, Algerians, Moroccans, Afghans and Arabs from neighboring countries.

 

 

"What's really remarkable is that the citizens this time really took the initiative to provide us with very good information," Feleih said.

 

 

In three days, according to Iraqi and U.S. officials' accounts, troops have killed at least 128 insurgents nationwide, culminating in the announcement of Tuesday's attack by Iraqi commandos, backed by U.S. air and ground fire. On Sunday, U.S. soldiers killed 26 insurgents south of Baghdad, while a fight during an ambush on an Iraqi security envoy killed 17 militants on Monday.

 

 

"This string of successes does have positive repercussions in that it may convince Iraqis not supporting the insurgents — but not supporting the United States either — to perceive that the tide is turning and not go with the insurgents," said Nora Bensahel, a Washington-based Iraq analyst for Rand Corp.

...

.....

US. Army Maj. Richard Goldenberg, a 42nd Infantry Division spokesman, said an estimated 80 to 100 insurgents were at the camp, 60 miles north of Ramadi, and that some insurgents fled with casualties before the area could be surrounded.

 

Iraqi commandos were in the area to conduct a different raid, but tips from residents redirected them to the lakeside camp, Goldenberg said. An Iraqi officer said residents had been providing intelligence for 18 days before the attack.

......

 

 

There is more at the link.

 

It seems since the story broke internationally about the

"Seven Bodies Discovered in Ramadi Belonged to Followers of Zarqawi"

the anti US military in Iraq stories may not get the coverage they enjoyed up to recently.

 

 

 

I will look for the English version of the way Al Jazeera posted the story this morning. That is where I first read about this story.

 

Ever since Al Jazeera has been pushed out of the Iraqi streets, the bandits of Zarqawi don't command the media respect they once did.

 

I wonder if the Iraqi commando's had a camera crew with them.

In the United States, there is a television show called COPS

I'm sure our show pales in comparison to what is shown on Iraqi TV.

?

Why doesn't the american media cover some of the Iraqi TV broadcasts ?

 

Maybe soon we will get something broadcast by at least one of the major networks.

 

Currently, American media is rivited covering the story of a woman in Florida who is going to die in a week or two.

Her husband wants her to die,her parents want her to live.

[Guest Guest_Tajer]

I had the chance to listen to the head of the comandos talking to arabic radio Sawa.

He said that the whole process was carried by his soliedrs and the they needed the help of the coalition air support when the terrorist fled the fight hidding in the marshs near to the camp.

He also morn seven of his comados that were killed in the fight.

He confirmed the reprots that most of the killed were Arabs from different nationalities.

 

I compared the english and arabic version of the covering by Aljezera. They confirmed the 85 killed in the arbic version, while they tried to make it vage in the english one. Funny, they are on the run..

[Guest Mustefser]

http://www.radiosawa.com/RadioSawaReports.aspx?

 

In Arabic. A report by Iraqi who commented on the above story.

He also added that in Kadimia, people captured a sudani terrorist who was planning to commit sucide.. The reporter said that Iraqi were dilivared him to police after getting a good amount of kicks and ! there was another one who scaped , and the peole are looking after ..