Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Media: AFP
Byline: Taieb Mahjoub
Date: 15 October 2006
DUBAI, Oct 15, 2006 (AFP) - A Sunni Arab insurgent alliance proclaimed an
independent Islamic emirate in Sunni-populated areas of central and
northern Iraq Sunday after MPs approved a federal constitution for the
war-torn country.
In video footage screened by the Arabic news channel Al-Jazeera, a
spokesman for the Al-Qaeda-sponsored Alliance of the Anointed called on
Iraq's disenchanted Sunni Arab former elite to "pledge allegiance to the
emir of the believers, Sheikh Abu Omar al-Baghdadi," a previously unknown
nom de guerre.
The spokesman set maximal boundaries for the breakaway Sunni Arab state,
saying that it would include parts of the mainly Shiite provinces of Babil
and Wasit south of Baghdad along with the whole of the confessionally mixed
capital and province of Diyala, and the key northern cities of Kirkuk and
Mosul.
The spokesman said the proclamation "comes after the Kurds formed an
alliance in the northern state and the rejectionists (Shiites) won approval
for autonomy in southern and central Iraq."
Speaking under a black banner bearing the Muslim profession of faith, the
spokesman, whose face was disguised electronically on the video, called on
Sunni insurgents, clergy and tribal leaders to work for the realisation of
the breakaway emirate.
He called for every sacrifice to be made to retain Baghdad as capital of
the mooted Sunni Arab state, even though the former elite form a minority
in the city.
"Baghdad, the capital of the Islamic caliphate... was built by our own
ancestors and it will only be taken from us over our dead bodies," he said.
Iraq's Kurdish minority already enjoys broad autonomy in three far-northern
provinces and wants that extended to include the oil city of Kirkuk as well
as parts of Diyala province and the Nineveh governorate based on Mosul.
The Iraqi parliament Wednesday approved a law which would allow the
country's other 15 provinces to hold referendums to merge themselves into
larger autonomous regions under a federal constitution, in a move seen as
paving the way for Shiite autonomy in the centre and south.
Only 138 of parliament's 275 MPs took part in the vote, giving it the
barest of majorities, in the face of strong opposition from Arab
nationalists among the Sunnis as well as some Shiites.
Champions of a federal Iraq maintain it is the best way to hold the country
together in the face of the sectarian tensions unleashed by the replacement
of Saddam Hussein's Sunni Arab-dominated regime with a Shiite majority-led
administration.
But detractors argue that it will inexorably lead to the partition of a
country which was created as recently as the early 20th century by imperial
Britain.
The new insurgent alliance was announced only Thursday by the main rebel
umbrella group, the Mujahedeen Consultative Council, following what it said
was the adhesion of three other sectarian or tribal factions.
Byline: Taieb Mahjoub
Date: 15 October 2006
DUBAI, Oct 15, 2006 (AFP) - A Sunni Arab insurgent alliance proclaimed an
independent Islamic emirate in Sunni-populated areas of central and
northern Iraq Sunday after MPs approved a federal constitution for the
war-torn country.
In video footage screened by the Arabic news channel Al-Jazeera, a
spokesman for the Al-Qaeda-sponsored Alliance of the Anointed called on
Iraq's disenchanted Sunni Arab former elite to "pledge allegiance to the
emir of the believers, Sheikh Abu Omar al-Baghdadi," a previously unknown
nom de guerre.
The spokesman set maximal boundaries for the breakaway Sunni Arab state,
saying that it would include parts of the mainly Shiite provinces of Babil
and Wasit south of Baghdad along with the whole of the confessionally mixed
capital and province of Diyala, and the key northern cities of Kirkuk and
Mosul.
The spokesman said the proclamation "comes after the Kurds formed an
alliance in the northern state and the rejectionists (Shiites) won approval
for autonomy in southern and central Iraq."
Speaking under a black banner bearing the Muslim profession of faith, the
spokesman, whose face was disguised electronically on the video, called on
Sunni insurgents, clergy and tribal leaders to work for the realisation of
the breakaway emirate.
He called for every sacrifice to be made to retain Baghdad as capital of
the mooted Sunni Arab state, even though the former elite form a minority
in the city.
"Baghdad, the capital of the Islamic caliphate... was built by our own
ancestors and it will only be taken from us over our dead bodies," he said.
Iraq's Kurdish minority already enjoys broad autonomy in three far-northern
provinces and wants that extended to include the oil city of Kirkuk as well
as parts of Diyala province and the Nineveh governorate based on Mosul.
The Iraqi parliament Wednesday approved a law which would allow the
country's other 15 provinces to hold referendums to merge themselves into
larger autonomous regions under a federal constitution, in a move seen as
paving the way for Shiite autonomy in the centre and south.
Only 138 of parliament's 275 MPs took part in the vote, giving it the
barest of majorities, in the face of strong opposition from Arab
nationalists among the Sunnis as well as some Shiites.
Champions of a federal Iraq maintain it is the best way to hold the country
together in the face of the sectarian tensions unleashed by the replacement
of Saddam Hussein's Sunni Arab-dominated regime with a Shiite majority-led
administration.
But detractors argue that it will inexorably lead to the partition of a
country which was created as recently as the early 20th century by imperial
Britain.
The new insurgent alliance was announced only Thursday by the main rebel
umbrella group, the Mujahedeen Consultative Council, following what it said
was the adhesion of three other sectarian or tribal factions.