scoone
02-27-2004, 11:29 AM
Fri Feb 27, 2004 11:01 AM ET
BEIRUT (*******) - A little-known militant group calling itself the Army of Ansar al-Sunna said on Friday it had killed more than a thousand people in 285 attacks in Iraq over the past year.
In a tape aired on a Lebanese satellite channel the group showed photographs of six men it said had carried out suicide bombings and urged Muslims to wage a holy struggle against Iraq's U.S.-led occupying forces.
"Jihad in Iraq has become a duty for every Muslim since the infidel enemy reached the land of Islam," the group said in the tape broadcast on LBC late on Thursday. Songs played in the background with the words: "God with all his might is with us."
The U.S. military command in Baghdad has said Ansar al-Sunna, which claimed responsibility for an ambush in late November that killed seven Spanish intelligence agents south of Baghdad, could be one of a handful of groups suspected of attacking U.S. and allied troops and Iraqi security forces.
Ansar al-Sunna said it had killed 1,155 people since it first struck in May 2003. No hard evidence has emerged about the group's credibility or size and there has been no independent verification of its claims.
The group has issued several claims of responsibility through an Islamic Web site. The latest was for twin suicide bombings in the northern Iraqi town of Arbil early this month that killed at least 100 people.
In a statement sent to ******* on Thursday Ansar al-Sunna called U.S forces "stupid" and "cowardly" and condemned Iraq's U.S.-appointed Governing Council.
"The judgment of Sharia (Islamic law) over those people is that they are apostates for being part of a government in which the final say is that of the American ruler and not God."
It also said on the tape its main task was "to put together a number of jihadi factions and groups already on the battlefield from north to south."
http://www.*******.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=4456364
BEIRUT (*******) - A little-known militant group calling itself the Army of Ansar al-Sunna said on Friday it had killed more than a thousand people in 285 attacks in Iraq over the past year.
In a tape aired on a Lebanese satellite channel the group showed photographs of six men it said had carried out suicide bombings and urged Muslims to wage a holy struggle against Iraq's U.S.-led occupying forces.
"Jihad in Iraq has become a duty for every Muslim since the infidel enemy reached the land of Islam," the group said in the tape broadcast on LBC late on Thursday. Songs played in the background with the words: "God with all his might is with us."
The U.S. military command in Baghdad has said Ansar al-Sunna, which claimed responsibility for an ambush in late November that killed seven Spanish intelligence agents south of Baghdad, could be one of a handful of groups suspected of attacking U.S. and allied troops and Iraqi security forces.
Ansar al-Sunna said it had killed 1,155 people since it first struck in May 2003. No hard evidence has emerged about the group's credibility or size and there has been no independent verification of its claims.
The group has issued several claims of responsibility through an Islamic Web site. The latest was for twin suicide bombings in the northern Iraqi town of Arbil early this month that killed at least 100 people.
In a statement sent to ******* on Thursday Ansar al-Sunna called U.S forces "stupid" and "cowardly" and condemned Iraq's U.S.-appointed Governing Council.
"The judgment of Sharia (Islamic law) over those people is that they are apostates for being part of a government in which the final say is that of the American ruler and not God."
It also said on the tape its main task was "to put together a number of jihadi factions and groups already on the battlefield from north to south."
http://www.*******.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=4456364