Fraters Libertas

The Face Of The Enemy

Very interesting story in yesterday's St. Paul Pioneer Press on interviews with Iraqi guerrillas conducted by Hannah Allam, a writer for the paper:

The first interview, with an Iraqi who identified himself as Abu Mohammed, took place in an abandoned building in Mansour, Baghdad's most exclusive neighborhood. The second, with a Jordanian who called himself Abu Abdullah, was at the encampment near Baquba.

The two cell leaders said their fighters primarily were former Iraqi army officers and young Iraqis who had joined because they were angry over the deaths or arrests of family members during U.S. raids in the hunt for Saddam Hussein and his supporters.

The group also shelters remnants of a non-Iraqi Arab unit of Saddam's elite Fedayeen militia force as well as foreigners who slipped across the country's long and porous borders to battle American troops, they said. Abu Abdullah, who directs the camp near Baquba, said he came to Iraq shortly before the United States invaded it last spring.

This seems to confirm that assessment that the insurgents are a combination of Iraqis and foreigners. They also are receiving support from some interesting places:

The anti-American forces appear to be more organized than some U.S. intelligence and military officials thought. Cells receive orders and intelligence from Diyala, which lies within the northern "Sunni Triangle" of danger. According to the fighters, the Diyala leadership oversees about 100 guerrillas, including an all-women's unit, and is backed by private donations as well as Syrian funding, according to the two cell leaders. Both said they had been told by superiors not to contact members of other cells for fear of infiltrators.

And the big dog still appears to be playing a role:

Abu Mohammed seemed confident that Saddam is directing at least some of the activity. He said he'd heard that leaders many levels above him had met recently with the fallen Iraqi leader.

"We love Saddam Hussein for one thing - he has a big mind," Abu Mohammed said. "He knows how to think and how to plan. He made our hearts as strong as steel."

It is difficult to determine the accuracy of many of the claims made by these guerrillas but if what they say is even partially true it would reinforce the notion that this insurgency is not going to be put down any time soon.