Thursday, June 19, 2014

army of the men of the naqshbandi


wikipedia |  The group operates in Kirkuk and other parts of northern Iraq, and is linked to Saddam Hussein's former aide Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, who was himself an adherent of the Naqshbandi order and is thought to be the largest militant group that consists of former Baathists .[9] Outside of Kirkuk, the group has carried out operations in Baghdad, al-Anbar, Ninawa, Diyala and Salah al-Din provinces.[5]

The Army of the Men of the Naqshbandi Order frequently film and distribute footage of themselves via their websites attacking American depots and ambushing Iraqi and American forces using mortar strikes and homemade missiles as well as using light machine guns and sniper rifles.[5]

The group avoided direct confrontation with US Forces in Iraq, relying instead on guerrilla tactics. The groups main focus was on a two-pronged strategy. The first phase is focused on defense, where the group attacks soft targeting while focusing builds up its power whilst training and cooperating with other groups to widen the armed opposition.[5] Local Emirs, each responsible for 7-10 fighters, were set up in every province. The Emirs were in turn led by an Emir al-Jihad; a grand Sheikh of al-Naqshbandia.[5] The group is dedicated to secrecy in the carrying out of operations.[5]

As of 2009 it was believed al-Douri was leading the group from Syria, although the groups leadership was believed to move between Syria and Iraq.

The JRTN was originally composed mainly of groups wishing to restore the old order under the Ba'athist ideology. The JRTN is predominantly composed of Iraqi Sunnis trying to force foreign troops out of Iraq. It is a Sufi Islamic organization with Iraqi and Arab nationalist tendencies. Since the JRTN is led by Saddam's former deputy Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, and contains many former Ba'athists, Arab Nationalism, Arab Socialism, Ba'athism as well as Sufi Islamism and Sunni Islamism have all become an important part of its ideology. The JRTN often emphasises and appeals to different ideologies in different circumstances, appealing to ideals such traditional Arab socialism as well as Islamic unity in order to achieve its goals.[10]

The group's links to both Sufism and its embrace of violence is controversial as many Sufi followers believe Sufism to be strongly opposed to violence.[5] Sufism had been tolerated under the Ba'athist government of Saddam Hussein due to its peaceful and relatively apolitical nature. Government tolerance for Sufism even resulted in its adoption by several members of the ruling Ba'ath party.[5] 

However, despite its roots in a desire to protect Sufis, the group has declared itself to be fighting to maintain Iraq's unity, along with its Arab and Islamic character. As such, the group can be seen as pursuing a nationalistic, as opposed to religious, line.[5] The group's main desire is to return the former Ba'ath party to power, in part due to the many freedoms Naqashbandi's enjoyed under the Ba'ath party.[5] Others have accused the group of merely acquiring the Naqashbandi name in order to increase its popularity.[1] Although the group recognises a direct return to Baathist control is impossible, the group instead focuses on infiltrating former Baathists into positions of power to try to dominate a future nationalist government.[10] The group then wishes to portray itself, and the wider Baath party, as a technocratic alternative to a currently incompetent Islamist government that is incapable of delivering services. Maintaining chaos in Iraq is a key part of this plan, as the JRTN must ensure living standards do not improve under the current government, so as to make the group appear more attractive.[10]

The group is strongly anti-Coalition[1] and supports the targeting of Coalition forces in Iraq, believing that coalition forces including individuals, equipment and supplies, are legitimate targets at any time or place in Iraq. Iraqis are not considered valid targets, unless fighting with Coalition forces. The group is opposed to fighting other insurgent groups, and will cooperate if they are committed to the same agenda.[5]

People such as Ibrahim al-Sumadaie of the Iraqi Constitutional Party fear that JRNT could become increasingly attractive to Sunnis aggrieved by a Shiite dominated government or those who had previously left the insurgency and switched sides to the Coalition forces to fight al Qaeda, such as the Awakening Councils, who now feel abandoned. Security officials contend that thousands of Sunni insurgents who are upset by Maliki's failure to absorb them into the military are being recruited by JRTN and will pose a threat to stability. This is in turn helped by the fact that JRTN survived as the popularity of more fundamentalist groups such as al-Qaeda in Iraq waned, leaving them as one of the last few major opposition groups.[1] The JRTN platform is attractive to Sunnis, due less to attraction to an explicitly Baathist or Arab nationalist socialist platform, as much as it is an attraction to the idea of the creation of an area where Sunnis can be Sunnis.[5]

According to a US intelligence officer,[who?] members of JRTN can often be respected figures within local government, or influential figures within their communities. These figures don't necessarily act violently, allowing them to blend in and making it difficult to obtain warrants issued by the Iraqi court to arrest them. JRTN cells have also been characterized as being similar to a familial organization, with members often being part of the same family, or being tied to the Sheikh Maqsud sub-tribe of the Al-Douris, meaning that at its most fundamental level, JRTN is an Al-Douri family business.[5] The group also relies on tribal loyalties of Sunni Arabs for support in Kirkuk province, where many Sunni Arabs were located to from Tikrit during Saddam Hussein's tenure.[1]


10 comments:

Ed Dunn said...

Western media once again grasping for straws to make sense out of an effective rebel army that winning hearts and minds.

CNu said...

I'd be very willing to bet this connection is true. Says something important about the possible scope of the new caliphate.

Ed Dunn said...

Was Obama and Kerry smart to do a deal with Assad snubbing the Syrian rebels to protect Soviet face and oil interests? What was the rebels supposed to do other than ISIS?

This has got to be a serious screwup and it follows the "bring em on!" pattern of underestimating the little guys.

makheru bradley said...

Most probably the Naqshbandi's are using ISIS to achieve their political objectives.

CNu said...

Of course you'll have noticed that the old sufi is one of the few who managed to escape the hangman's noose and the $10Million bounty that the U.S. put on his head. Notwithstanding his distinctive appearance and coloration, he somehow managed to "fade to black" in his surroundings literally for years. Referring to the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria’s fighters, Michael Knights, an analyst at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy who has researched the Naqshbandia group, said, “They couldn’t have seized a fraction of what they did without coordinated alliances with other Sunni groups.”

In some areas under militant control, including areas around Mosul, Kirkuk and Tikrit, he said, “there are definitely pockets where the Naqshbandias are wearing the pants.”http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/19/world/middleeast/former-loyalists-of-saddam-hussein-crucial-in-helping-isis.html - lot of intertribal and intra-islamic scores to be settled now that everything is back in play more dynamically than it was prior to Sykes-Picot. I personally find this spectacle fascinating to watch. Jordan is at risk www.stratfor.com/analysis/jordan-could-be-islamic-state-iraq-and-levants-next-target and for reasons well familiar in the region given the familial and inter-tribal history http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hashemite of Syria,. Jordan, Iraq (King Faisal)

Michael Varian Daly said...

"Everything old is new again." ~Cole Porter

Vic78 said...

Speaking of devils...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/cia-hatched-plan-to-make-demon-toy-to-counter-bin-laden-influence/2014/06/19/cb3d571c-f0d0-11e3-914c-1fbd0614e2d4_story.html

CNu said...

Somebody needs to combine that with this http://dreamandhustle.com/2014/06/hustle-space-teach-or-take-preview-the-homies/ -and play both sides against their own middle bank account!

Vic78 said...

They'd better use a shell company. People would have to go under witness protection.

makheru bradley said...

The folly of American foreign policy, that of Bush and neocons, and of Obama and the neoliberals, is on full display here. The 2003 Bush invasion and subsequent destabilization of Iraq created the conditions which gave rise to al-Qaeda in Iraq, which was later rebranded the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI). Obama’s support of the insurgents in Syria, largely through Qatar and Saudi Arabia, helped to create the conditions which allowed ISI to expand into ISIS/ISIL (Iraq and al-Sham or Iraq and Levant). Several reports claim that many ISIS/IL fighters were trained by US Special Ops at a base in Jordan, as part of the Syrian insurgency. How many times does blowback have to bite your ass before you change your policies?

Who are bigger fools--the ones making stupid policies, or the people who keep supporting the ones making stupid policies?

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